Behind the Scenes
by magicianhayd
Summary: The Vytal Festival is finally here, and the girls of RWBY are excited to compete...if they can even get into the tournament that is. Go behind the scenes of Volume 3 of RWBY and meet a whole new cast of characters, including the mysterious bounty hunter Smoak and his Team, SSAO (Shadow). Rated T for safety. (JxP) (Slightly AU with a few added OC's, more info inside).
1. Chapter 0- FYI

Hey, everyone! This is my first attempt at a different genre of Fanfic. Often I work on Code Lyoko fanfics and have a couple of other stories that are all in the works. But I thought I'd give this a try. This is the first story that I probably had to do several hours of research and planning before I even started writing. (Did you all know that money in RWBY is called 'lien'? Neither did I until I looked it up!) I was hoping for this to come out before Volume 3 of RWBY came out, but I guess you can all see how well that went. Well, before you get to reading, I have this here, so you know who's who in my story. You don't have to read it, but if you want a little bit of background, it won't hurt to look this over.

*UPDATE* I have made some slight changes to my characters, and Ch. 1! (More than just changing the title of the chapters...) They aren't huge, but they are worth a read!

Team SSAO (Team Shadow)

Smoak Cardiff (M/22) & Shado Cardiff (M/22)

Smoak and Shado are twins from Vacuo. They left when they were young to travel and try to study at the different Huntsman academies, eventually settling at the Mistral academy where they were placed into a team, Team SSAO. Their team consists of the twins, and two girls named Orchid and Ashley (Ash). Smoak and Shado are convincing illusionists and use that skill to help make money with the rest of their team. They also taught a couple of tricks to the other members of their team so that they could all perform together. Smoak specializes in Card Magic, and Shado specializes in Penetration Magic (Putting a solid object through another object, I swear it's not dirty...) Smoak's weapon is a pair of matching nightsticks named Nightbane and Dawn. The nightsticks change into a pair of small caliber pistols (I envisioned something like an FN Five-Seven). Shado's weapon is a pair of matching katanas named Lightbane and Dusk. The katanas change into a high caliber rifle called Moonsight (I envision a Type 99 Arisaka). Smoak is the leader, but it wasn't always that way. Shado was once the leader, but after a training exercise mishap, the headmaster demoted him and made Smoak the leader, but the team's name stuck. Smoak's symbol is an image of a smoke bomb, and Shado's is a spade (like the one from a deck of cards). Smoak and Shado are inspired by Sean and Seth, my Oc's from my Code Lyoko Fanfic, 'Secret Life'.

Orchid Ayaka (F/21)

Orchid is from an influential family in Mistral. While she looks up to and respects her parents, she also feels restricted by them and wishes that she could get away from them one day to a place that her parents wouldn't be able to find her. She left her home to travel with the rest of the team but still feels like her parents are watching her everywhere she goes. Orchid specializes in Coin Magic. Her weapon is an adjustable-gripped spear that allows her to throw it without it leaving her hand. (I'll post a concept picture sometime here shortly). The spear is named Blackfury and also changes into a pump shotgun. Orchid couldn't stand Smoak when they first met, but in a cruel twist of fate, the headmaster paired them together while they were in the academy. Orchid's symbol is a picture of an orchid flower. Orchid is based slightly on Sophia from my Code Lyoko Fanfic, but for this story, I also think I drew some inspiration from Mikasa Ackerman from, 'Attack on Titan.'

Ashley ('Ash') Brandr (F/20)

Ashley's family owns a large company in Atlas (but nowhere as big as Schnee Dust). She is the second in line to take over the company right after her older brother. Ashley feels the need to please her parents since they have provided so much for her and expected a lot in return, and she often feels like it puts a lot of pressure on her. She suffers from extreme fear of crowds and meeting new people, and often runs away when she isn't able to cope with the fear. She left her home when Smoak and Shado came to Atlas to study in Mistral. So far Shado is the only person to figure out an effective way to calm and help Ash when she panics. Ash specializes in Prop-based magic. Her weapon is a bow and arrow named Phantom Strike. The bow also changes into a blow dart gun and a pair of tonfa for close-ranged attacks. Ash's symbol is an arrowhead. Ash is based on Noel from my Code Lyoko fanfic and a friend of mine IRL.

I'm not going to tell you anything about any of their semblances because that would ruin the story. You'll have to keep reading to get all the info ;). (I'll give five bucks to the first person who can accurately guess each of Team SSAO's semblances).

Brick (M/48) and Sapphire (F/47) Cardiff

Brick and Sapphire are Smoak and Shado's parents. They were Huntsman themselves before settling down to start a family. Both of their weapons are custom made and designed in a unique fashion. Brick's weapon, Grim Talon, is a series of spikes that are fed down his arms on a track to a holding mechanism on his knuckles. The spikes can be used to punch, but also can be shot off at the knuckles as well. They can also oscillate back and forth like a chainsaw. Sapphire's weapon, Requiem, is a large, jagged broadsword that also transforms into a small personal defense gun, (Think...FN P90). Smoak's pistols are based on his mother's weapons, since they use the same caliber.

Sunni Cardiff (F/17)

Sunni (pronounced just like Sunny) is Smoak and Shado's younger sister. She loves performing everything magic, having learned from her older brothers, but chooses to focus on Disappearance Magic. ('Now you see it, now you don't, and now it's back again but in a different, impossible place.)

I won't get too much into the Cardiff's because I give you all the details about them later in Ch. 2.

So that's all my Oc's, there might be others in the future, and when I introduce them, I will be sure to include their info as well. I also hope to get some concept art of each of my characters here soon, but I'm terrible at drawing, so if someone could do it for me...? If you're interested PM me.

So, I hope you enjoy my first anime FanFic. Stick around because I hope to update at least once a month (between school, work, and other responsibilities.) Please review because it helps me know what I'm doing good and what still needs work. Also, be sure while you're at it to like and follow this story, so you get all the story updates.


	2. Chapter 1- Magic!

Hey, guys! This is a repost of this chapter. I was going through it and realized that I had a few gaping plot holes, some mistakes, and some things I hadn't explained to the extent I wanted to for a first chapter. So I went back, (and with the power of editing), I fixed it! It isn't a complete re-write, and reads close to the original, but there are a couple changes for those of you interested in following what they were. So I'm hoping that this will read a little easier now. Let me know what you guys think. (Seriously, guys! Review or something because I want to know what you, the readers, think about this!) I am currently hard at work at continuing the story, so stay tuned! Oh, and my offer to give five bucks to the first person who can accurately guess all of Team SSAO's semblances still stands. You may know two of them if you've read Ch. 2, but what are the rest of them?

* * *

Ch. 1- Magic...

It was a bright and perfect day in the Remnant town of Vale. The sun was shining and the entire town buzzed with life. The girls of RWBY were pumped and ready for the Vytal festival. The girls were up bright and early to apply for spots to compete in the famous Vytal tournament. As they walked through town after leaving the ferry from the campus up the mountain at Beacon, they talked and joked with almost no cares in the world. It had been two weeks since the girls, along with the help of some of the other Huntsman groups helped to put away Roman Torchwick and foil his evil plan to unleash hordes of Grimm on their town. Now, with the tournament finally here, it was all they really could talk about.

"Ooooh! I can't wait to see all the people who are signing up for the tournament!" said Weiss in an unusually enthusiastic voice, "It's important to see who your competition is!"

"There's the Weiss we all know…" said Blake

"Hey!" complained Weiss, "All I'm saying is that is the perfect opportunity to size up any potential opponents."

"I agree…" said Ruby, "Plus, it's always fun to see what everyone else uses for their weapons!" said Ruby, completely fangirling as they rounded the corner to see a large group milling about the town square. Every person in the square came in all sorts of sizes and shapes and colors, as did their weapons.

"Ooooh! Is that a spear with an adjustable throwing grip? And over there is that someone with a set of throwing fans?!" said Ruby, all giddy with excitement.

"Whoa, calm down there sis…" said Yang, reeling back in her sister, "You can look, but you just can't touch…"

"Sorry…I just get SO excited when I get to see all sorts of new weapons!"

"Forget the weapons," said Weiss, "What you should really focus on is the person swinging it..." she said as she looked up a mammoth man with a large broadsword strapped to his back as he thundered by.

"You shouldn't neglect either," said Blake, "As a wise woman once said, it doesn't matter the size of the person or their weapon, but how they use the weapon they have."

"Hmm…" pondered Weiss, "Wait, that sounds like something you'd say!" Blake froze, and the bow on the top of her hair perked up slightly as her hidden Faunus ears shot up in surprise.

"Umm…no!" said Blake, "Must have been something I heard around!" said Blake with a chuckle.

"Hey, look!" said Yang breaking up the awkward moment, "There're Jaune and the others!" she said pointing out the members of Team JNPR. From across the square, the girls of RWBY waved at the members of JNPR. Nora saw them and then pointed the girls out to the rest of her team members. Nora grabbed Ren and Jaune by the arms and steered them over to the members of RWBY, followed by Pyrrha.

"Hey guys," said the energetic red-head, "How's it going?"

"Not bad, how are you doing?" asked Ruby.

"Oh, just peachy!" bubbled Nora, "But wait, how do we know how a peach is doing?" said Nora, getting distracted. "Has anyone ever talked with a peach and asked them how they are doing? Do they mind being eaten by people? You know what?!" said Nora all excited, everyone else was hanging in suspense to hear what she would have to say. Finally, Nora turned and said, "People like peaches…!"

"You're right Nora, people like peaches," said Ren, intervening to keep Nora from going on forever on one of her rants. The rest of Team RWBY stood there with blank looks on their faces as they tried to comprehend what happened. However, Pyrrha stepped in and started talking,

"We just signed up for the tournament, and we're already in the brackets, see?" she said, pointing towards a large board in the center of the square. It was true, just as Pyrrha pointed, one of the officials hung a board with each of Team JNPR's logos on it.

"Speaking of which, who do you think is going to win?" asked Nora turning back around to face the rest of Team RWBY.

"Uh-" scoffed Weiss, "Everyone knows that I am the one who's going to win this year's Vytal tournament…"

"Wow, stuck up much?" said Yang, pushing Weiss out of the way, "Besides, we all know that if someone were to win, it would probably be…" said Yang walking over to Ruby and Pyrrha and putting her arms around their shoulders. Ruby squealed when Yang did this, and Pyrrha said,

"Why thank you, Yang, I didn't know you thought so highly of me…"

"What, what are you talking about?" asked Yang

"Wait, you weren't saying you think that I could win?" asked Ruby, her eyes began to well up and her lip quivered.

"What? No, I was saying that if anyone were to win, it's probably going to be me!" Ruby's face shattered and Pyrrha seemed slightly taken aback.

"Pfft… whatever…" said Weiss, "As we all know, my father's company is one of the biggest investors in the Vytal Festival and Tournament, that if I weren't to win it would be an insult."

"Hey, you're right Weiss," said Yang, "If you lose, you'll never be able to live that down. I mean, your father is a large investor in the festival, and if you blow it in the festival…well…" said Yang, ending on a cliffhanger

"Well…?" asked Weiss in a panicked voice, "Well what?!"

"All I'm saying is you better not let someone else win that festival princess…" said Yang, toying with Weiss.

"Yeah right!" said Nora, "If anyone were to win, I just know it'd be Ren!" said Nora, putting her arm around Ren's shoulders. Her combined weight and shorter height pulled Ren down to her height and he grunted a little as he bent to match the redhead's height.

"Really Nora," said Ren, "Out of the both of us, I think you have a much better chance than I do," he said modestly as he tried to extract himself out from under Nora's arm.

"Well, we won't get to settle this if you don't sign up for the tournament soon…" said Pyrrha.

"What are you talking about?" asked Weiss

"You guys better hurry, we just came from the sign-up booth, and they said that they were running out of spots for people from Vale very quickly!" said Pyrrha, pointing to the sign-up booth.

"What?!" shouted Weiss, "Why didn't you say anything! We need to get over there now!" Weiss broke into a run and the rest of Team RWBY followed.

"Thanks, guys, we'll see you guys later!" said Ruby over her shoulder as they ran towards the other end of the square.

"I want some peach pancakes now…" said Nora as soon as the rest of Ruby's team had left.

"C'mon Nora, let's see if we can find you some…" said Ren.

"We…need to make it….to that booth…before they run out of spots!" panted Weiss

"What do you think we're doing?" shouted Yang.

"Well…there's too many people in this square!" grunted Ruby as she tried to squeeze past several of the other teams.

"Yeah, we'll never make it at this rate!" said Blake, extracting herself from the middle of a team of large men. Weiss stopped and turned on the rest of Team RWBY.

"And since when has that ever stopped us?"

"Um, Weiss…?" said Ruby

"No, when has a difficult situation ever stopped Team RWBY?"

"Weiss…" said Blake

"Never, that's when!" said Weiss

"Weiss!" shouted the other girls

"What's?!" screeched Weiss, "Can't you see I'm talking?"

"Yeah, great, really inspirational," said Yang, moving around Weiss and away from the group, "But…" Said the blonde with a look of concern

"What?" asked Weiss

"The sign-up table's about to close, remember?" said Ruby, pulling Weiss by the hand

"What, oh yeah!" said Weiss, "But we'll never make it in time!" she said as she tried to peer over all the other people in the square.

"When has that ever stopped us?" said Ruby as she pulled out Crescent Rose.

"Wha-?" said Weiss. As the ice queen stood there, the rest of the girls readied their weapons. Yang activated and cocked back Ember Celica, Blake unraveled the ribbon of Gambol Shroud.

"Last one there is a dirty Grimm!" said Yang, with a whoop. Punching the air, Yang took off into the air and over the head of many of the groups in the square.

Ruby and Blake followed suit. Ruby pointed the end of her scythe away from herself and pulled the trigger, and with a shot, she blasted into the air too. Blake folded the blade of her weapon back and threw the gun hilt with a large force. The hilt spun and caught on to a lamppost. Blake took all the slack out of the ribbon and swung it towards the booth. Weiss quickly caught on and channeled her aura to make her glyphs like stepping stones over the head of the crowd. Once all the girls were airborne, they all maneuvered their way towards the sign-up booth. Once the girls passed most of the throng, they all aimed for a landing just a little way off from the front of the booth. But little did each of the girls know, that was where everyone else in Team RWBY was aiming. Weiss got there first, using her glyphs almost like an escalator down to the ground. Yang got there second and collided with the ice princess. Blake swung in and landed in the heap, and Ruby was last, blasting on top of the rest of her team. Each one of them cried out in grunts of pain as the others landed on them, and for a moment, they scuffled around on the ground, trying to get up. Ruby was the first to get to her feet and after she got up she zipped over to the booth, just as the official put down a sign that read 'Sign-up Closed'. And the last of the signs went up on the tournament bracket board, with no spaces left. The rest of the girls gasped and Weiss looked like she was paralyzed.

"Closed?" gasped Yang. Ruby looked like she was about to cry and Blake hung her head. But Weiss wasn't going to take that sitting down. So she got up and stomped over to the booth and slammed her hands down onto the table.

"I demand that you sign us up for the Vytal tournament!" said Weiss

"Ma'am, we are closed now, we are no longer accepting teams from Vale. But if someone on your team happens to be from Vacuo, I hear they still have a few openings for representing teams," said the official behind the booth. Weiss looked dumbfounded.

"Vacuo?! Do I look like I am from Vacuo to you?"

"Hey!" said a voice behind the girls, "What's wrong with Vacuo?" The girls turned to see Sun and the rest of team SSSN following behind him, along with a gaggle of girls who were following from a distance who seemed to be fans.

"Hey Sun!" greeted Ruby and the two high-fived

"S'up ladies?" said Sun with a smile and a wink. No one on Team RWBY bought it, but almost all of the girls in the fan club all twittered, "So tell me queenie, what's wrong with Vacuo?"

"N-nothing!" stammered Weiss

"That's what I thought!" said Sun, flexing for the fans, and the fan club almost lost their minds.

"What are you doing?" asked Weiss

"I'm giving these ladies here their daily dose of Vitamin F, from the Sun himself!" said the blonde, full of himself. All the girls stood with looks of confusion on their face, except Blake who turned away to hide the fact that she was blushing.

"Vitamin F?" asked Ruby, "I thought the sun gave off Vitamin D?"

"No I mean Vitamin F!" said Sun, changing poses, "Vitamin Flex!" grunted Sun, getting into another pose, and the fan club almost all fainted.

"You girls in the tournament yet?" asked Neptune, cutting Sun off.

"No!" growled Weiss, "I was trying to explain to this person here why they should let us in!" she said slamming her hands on the table.

"I'm sorry ma'am," said the official, "We aren't taking any more teams from Vale, but if you want to…"

"Listen here buster!" said Weiss in a low tone, jabbing a finger under the nose of the official, "Do you know who I am?"

"Hey guys, why don't we leave the ice queen here to argue this out, and in the meantime we can show you some pretty cool street performers we know from back home?" said Sun, breaking away from his fan club.

"Well shouldn't we be here in case we can get into the tournament?" asked Yang

"Ahh c'mon!" said Sun, "If you get in, then Weiss can buzz you on your scroll, and then you guys can come on back. We won't be going far!" reasoned Sun

"Are you sure?" asked Blake

"Positive, besides, it doesn't look like this argument is going anywhere anytime soon," said Sun gesturing to Weiss who was one move away from snapping the sign-up table in half.

"Okay, I guess we have some time," said Yang

"Wait!" shouted Weiss, "We shouldn't split up like this!"

"I'll stay behind," volunteered Blake, "You two go on ahead and I'll see if I can help Weiss."

"I'm rooting for the official…" said Sun leaning in to whisper to Ruby. And it was true, the commotion that Weiss had caused was drawing the attention of not only the other teams but the tournament police as well.

Ruby, Yang and Team SSSN all carefully walked away to avoid being associated with Weiss and towards the north side of town. There, at the north-most end of town was an empty lot that had been allotted to vendors and entertainers of the festival. The smells and sights were intoxicating as people from all walks of life showed their talents to the world. Sun wove through the crowd with nimble moves and the rest of his team and the girls struggled to keep up. Finally, they caught up to him. Sun had got sidetracked looking at the back of someone who was bent over and rummaging through a sack on the ground near the base of a tree.

"Sun!" said Scarlet, "I thought we were going to see the entertainers!" Sun shushed the red head and then went back to what he was doing.

At the mention of Sun's name, the man who was head deep in the bag stood up and looked around. Sun froze and then zipped out of sight into the branches of the tree. The man turned and looked around and saw the girls and what amounted to most of Team SSSN. They looked back at the man who seemed to be searching for something. Finally the man took a step forward towards the group, with his eyebrow raised, and spoke to them. He seemed eerily suspicious, and kind of gave Ruby and Yang the creeps.

"You wouldn't have happened to have seen a Faunus nearby?" asked the man, "About this high, blonde hair, tail of a monkey, and abs for days?" said the man, miming his words out.

Ruby was about to say something when she heard Scarlet, Neptune, and Sage all snicker. She looked over to the teammates to see what was so funny. All she could see was that they were all looking at one point and trying their best not to laugh out loud. Ruby looked and saw Sun's tail slowly descend out of the tree and begin to rummage through the man's bag. The man kept looking around, oblivious of what was going on behind him. Ruby wanted to say something, but she was curious to see what was happening. Sun's tail worked through the bag and found what he was looking for. Sun's tail emerged with a small lunch sack. Very quietly and with great dexterity, Sun opened the sack and withdrew a single item, a yellow banana. This time, it was Ruby and Yang's turn to laugh as they saw the banana slowly disappear into the tree.

They all heard Sun eat the banana, but the man kept looking around like he didn't hear a thing. After that, Sun dipped his tail down again to try seeing what else was in the bag. Then the man seemed to give up his search and walked backward to lean up against the tree, right where Sun's tail was. The man leaned up against the tree, closed his eyes and began to hum a small tune. Sun winced and was about to scream as he felt the man lean into his tail and pin him to that spot. The girls and Sun's team could all hear Sun as he tried to cover his mouth so that his shout wouldn't be heard as the man pinned Sun's tail between himself and the tree. The man just stood there very nonchalantly as he continued to hum his song. Sun and the rest of the group began to look worried as his face started to turn red from the exertion of trying to suppress his screams. Finally, the blonde Faunus couldn't take it anymore and he let out a bellowing scream. The man at the tree then eased off Sun's tail and opened his eyes to look into the branches.

"Hello, Sun," said the man in a calm voice

Sun was panting and grunting and holding onto the part of his tail that the man had pinned. Sun looked at his tail to make sure it wasn't permanently damaged. Once the throbbing went down, Sun turned on the man and hopped out of the tree.

"What the heck man!? What are you doing squishing my tail?!"

The man without even skipping a beat retorted, "What the heck man!? Why are you trying to steal my lunch?!" The two stared at each other for a second, and Ruby was afraid that it might come to blows. But then the Sun and the man broke into laughter. Ruby sighed and Sun and the man shot right into a complicated handshake. After what seemed like the hundredth stage of the handshake, the two broke apart and laughed.

"Smoak Cardiff!" said Sun, giving a high-five, "I haven't seen you in ages! What is up my man?"

"Nothing more than the beautiful sky above!" said the man Sun identified as Smoak and the two laughed.

Smoak seemed like an interesting character. His medium-length, dirty-blonde hair swept around his face and down the back of his neck. He had several small scars around his face and a large one that cut from his hairline and down through his eye and down, almost touching his upper lip. Some of the scars seemed deep, and the one that went through his eye was large and gnarly, but somehow they all added to his overall character. He had a bit of scruff on his face, it was very untrimmed, but Ruby thought it added to Smoak's roguish look. His swirling, gray colored eyes were definitely his defining feature since they looked like swirling smoke. His nose also looked like it had broken before in a couple since it leaned to one side. His mouth was cocked open in a half-grin and his laugh was a deep chuckle.

Smoak's clothing was even more interesting. He wore a cream-colored vest over a long-sleeved ruffled shirt with large cuffs that could be seen just barely on the end of the sleeves past the sleeves of his gray, worn, leather duster. The vest was tight up against his body, but the shirt under it was billowy and loose. The vest had a swirly pattern embroidered on it, and was secured with a series of metal clasps down the front of the garment. The shirt also had a wide, tall collar that went up to Smoak's jaw and opened barely to show the chain of a necklace underneath. The chain wound under Smoak's shirt, so Ruby couldn't see what was on the end of it.

Smoak also wore a pair of worn, leather gloves on both hands that matched the leather of his duster. A system of belts crisscrossed over Smoak's chest and linked in couple places. At those connections was a pair of worn holsters that held a weapon that couldn't be clearly seen past the folds of his duster. On one of the belts was Smoak's symbol, it looked like a ball with bumps all over that was leaking some sort of gas. Ruby realized that what it was supposed to be was a smoke bomb. She thought it was appropriate. Smoak's ensemble was finished by a pair of dark brown pants with knee-high leather boots done up with a series of latches. Ruby and Yang didn't know what to make of Smoak yet since all he had done was joke and laugh with Sun.

"Man, you haven't changed a bit, have you?" asked Sun. Smoak laughed and shook his head, when he recovered, he looked up and locked eyes with Neptune.

"Neptune, my man!" said Smoak with his arms wide open, and the two broke into another complicated handshake, but not as long as before. The pattern continued on down the line to the rest of Team SSSN. Ruby and Yang hung back, unsure of what to do, the rest of the guys were laughing it up when Smoak turned to face the ladies. Smoak stopped laughing, brushed his hair out of his eyes, and then slowly waltzed up to the two sisters.

"Well hello there, and who might you gorgeous ladies be?" said Smoak in a low, manly tone.

Smoak removed his gloves and took Yang's hand in his and Yang screeched and drew back in surprise. Yang moved quickly and swapped places with Ruby. Ruby looked behind her to see where her sister went. And then she looked back at Smoak's hand to see what all the trouble was. All Ruby saw was a ring in the shape of a winding snake and a few more scars etched across Smoak's hand. Without dropping a beat, Smoak turned to Ruby and took her hand in his. He bowed slightly and motioned as if he were about to go in for a kiss on her hand. He stopped just barely above Ruby's hand at the bottom of his bow and then raised back up to his full height of just barely taller than Sun and shorter than Neptune. Ruby seemed torn between apprehension and curiosity.

"Smoak, these are my friends, Ruby, and Yang. Yang and Ruby, I'd like you to meet my friend, Smoak Cardiff," said Sun gesturing between his friends.

"Enchanted," said Smoak, and he broke into another bow. He then stood up and replaced the gloves on his hands.

"Y-y-you're Smoak Cardiff?" stuttered Yang from behind Ruby

"Who wants to know?" asked Smoak, peering over Ruby's shoulder to the blonde. Ruby had never seen her sister like this before. She was usually so composed, but now she seemed to be scared of something. Smoak brushed his hair out of his eyes again, and his gray eyes shone as they caught the light through his blonde hair. Yang shrieked and Ruby cringed as she thought she felt her eardrum explode.

"You're Smoak Cardiff, the famous traveling bounty hunter!" shouted Yang. Ruby had no idea who that was. She had never heard of him, and she had no idea Yang knew who that was.

"You never said you were friends with Smoak Cardiff!" said Yang turning to Sun and punching him in the arm. Sun winced and stumbled as he tried to recover from Yang's powerful punch.

"I didn't know I had to," said Sun, rubbing his arm, "Besides, Smoak isn't always around, I haven't seen him in years. To be honest, I thought that he could be dead. Besides, you never said anything about being a bounty hunter!" said Sun bluntly

"You wound me Sun!" joked Smoak, deflecting Sun's comment. He held his hand to his heart and the other he used to mock shielding himself. He then turned back to the girls, "Well, it's true, being on the road a lot doesn't give much time for friends, and our operation is one you'd probably call…discreet," said Smoak, leaning in to whisper the last part.

"What do you mean?" asked Ruby

"Don't you know his team name?" asked Neptune

"No," said Ruby and Yang

"To be honest, I didn't know you worked with a team. Are you a huntsman?" asked Yang

"Yes, in fact, I am, and our team is comprised of my closest allies!" said Smoak, striking a pose, "We are Team SSAO, Team Shadow!"

"Team Shadow, the stealthiest and probably the best team out there! Each member of Team SSAO was hand-picked by me for their unique skills and abilities!" said Smoak full of pride.

"It's just you, your brother and your friends isn't it?" asked Scarlet. That took all the air out of Smoak and he hung his head.

"Yes…" said Smoak glumly.

"Wait, you have a brother?" asked Yang, "Is he as good looking?" she said rather quickly

"Hey where is your better half anyway?" asked Sun

"Which one? The handsome one like me, or the cute one?" asked Smoak, perking back up.

"I'm talking about the guy running around looking just like you!" said Sun, "Cute one?" mumbled Sun to himself and the rest of his team shrugged.

"Oh, you mean Shado," said Smoak, "He's around here somewhere. I sent him off to find a place for us to set up."

"You're setting up a booth?" asked Ruby.

Yang, on the other hand, was still trying to figure out where the conversation was going, "There's a guy who looks exactly like Smoak?"

Suddenly a voice from the nearby tree spoke up and startled everyone but Smoak, "Yeah, me."

Everyone looked over towards the tree but couldn't see anything. Suddenly, a person swung down from one of the branches and hung there by their legs for a second before slipping and falling out of the tree. Everyone winced and the person stood up. Once he was on his feet, the man who fell out of the tree stood up and brushed himself off. The man wore a hood and a face mask that concealed his identity and made it hard to see who he was. The man bent down and picked up something that fell with him. He held it up to his eyes and saw that it was a banana peel.

"Drop something?" asked the man, pointing the peel towards Sun.

"Hey now! Just because I'm a Faunus doesn't mean I'm the one who put that there!"

"Hey now! Just because I'm blonde," said the man, whipping back his hood, "Doesn't mean I'm stupid!"

Once the man had removed his hood, it was apparent that Smoak and this man were very much alike. Ruby figured this was the person named Shado that everyone was talking about. In fact, Shado was a spitting image of Smoak, minus the broken nose and scars all over his face. The man had the same length and shade of hair, the same facial features, and scruff, and was the same height as well. In fact, Ruby noticed that Shado was, for the most part, the same as his brother.

However, his outfit couldn't be more different compared to his brother's. Instead of the vest and duster that Smoak wore, Shado's outfit mostly consisted of dark leather. His outfit was very tight and form fitting, in complete contrast to the billowiness of Smoak's outfit. Shado's hands were covered in fingerless gloves, and on his feet were split toed shoes. He also had the same ring as Smoak of a winding snake formed into a circlet. Ruby was starting to wonder what the ring meant.

The leather on the chest, arms, and thighs of Shado's outfit were thicker and layered almost like scales. On one of the chest pieces, there was Shado's symbol that looked like a bit of raised leather in the shape of a spade from a deck of cards. He also had an attached hood that concealed his face and head, making it so all you really could see was his piercing gray eyes. Strapped to his back, Shado had a pair of identical katanas with an interesting cross guard on one of the swords. Ruby wanted to ask Shado about his weapons, but he seemed to still be in a shouting match with his brother and Sun. Instead, the question on her mind was.

"Hey! Are you guys' identical twins?" asked Ruby

"No, whatever gave you that idea?" said Smoak and Shado in perfect unison. Ruby felt overly confused. But all she could hear was Scarlet, Sage and Neptune laughing.

"Yes they are!" whispered Scarlet to Ruby

"What is going on?" asked Ruby. Between laughs, Neptune was able to answer,

"They do this every time they meet!" said Neptune

"What do you mean?" asked Yang

"We recreate the time that we first met," said Shado, "Our team was out on a mission and Sun and his friends happened across us."

"They do it every time?" asked Ruby, "How often do you guys get together?"

"Oh, it's been what? Half a year hasn't it, eh?" said Smoak, scratching his chin

"Yeah, I guess so," said Sun

"So what happened?" asked Yang

"Well, we were assigned to escort a group of settlers and along the way we stopped to eat," said Smoak

"There were lots of people in the group and food was starting to run short, we were afraid that we were going to starve," said Shado, "We were afraid that there was a thief following us or in the camp itself because things that were there one minute weren't there the next."

"Most of the stuff to walk off was food, so we were worried that someone was hoarding things," said Smoak, "But no matter how often we searched the camp, we never found the thief, and no matter how many guards we posted, all they ever found was footprints and trash left in the trees."

"Anyway, when we stopped to eat, I noticed a group of guys that hung near us really close. There were three of them and they were laughing and trying not to attract attention to themselves. But we could obviously see them," said Shado shooting a glance over to Scarlet, Sage, and Neptune.

"I knew the group, and they had caused some minor trouble before, but I always knew there was four of them, so immediately I knew something was up," said Smoak, "I heard a noise but didn't want to scare off the person, so I asked them if they had seen their friend."

"Long story short, Sun thought it would be funny to steal from us. All he found was my lunch with a banana in it," said Smoak

"And Smoak did basically the same thing that you just saw, pretty much word for word," said another voice from nearby. Everyone turned and looked and saw a girl walking towards them using a tall spear as a walking stick.

Ruby almost died of excitement as she saw the weapon. She loved seeing new weapons, especially ones that she had never seen before. And this girl's weapon was definitely something she had never seen before. The spear was long and made of a polished black metal. The spearhead was flat and looked like a leaf cut in half. On the back end of the blade, small chunks of the metal were cut out of the spearhead to look like jagged teeth, and the front end of the blade looked sharpened to a fine hone. There were a couple leather strands tied near the head of the spear where a few beads and a couple small Nevermore feathers attached at the end. On the end was a ball that slowly grew into a spike on the very end so that the spear was lethal on both ends. But what got Ruby's attention the most was the unique bit in the middle of the spear. The girl was holding onto a handle that seemed attached to a set of rollers set on ball bearings, allowing for the wielder to theoretically throw the spear without it ever leaving their hands.

The girl seemed almost as interesting as her weapon. Her long, flowing hair was the same shade as her spear, a dark black color. Her eyes were a liquid blue color and her lips ringed by a dark red shade of lipstick. She was very beautiful and but seemed to doubt that internally since one of her eyes was covered by her hair. Tucked into her hair was a small pink flower with five petals. She also wore a pair of earrings with the same decorative flower at the end of a small chain. To top it all off, the girl smelled faintly of the sweet aroma of flowers. Ruby couldn't remember the name of the flower, but it seemed familiar.

Her outfit consisted of a large, gray-colored scarf that ran down her left arm and turned into a sleeve. Under the scarf was a tight white shirt with long sleeves. The tightness of the shirt helped to…accentuate…some certain parts of her anatomy. Ruby even thought that Yang might have had some competition. The sleeve on her right side was cut short of the shoulder and on her left side it was rolled up above her elbow. Sitting on top of the scarf on her right shoulder was a metal pauldron that had a high collar. Printed on the pauldron was an image of the same flower that was pinned in her hair. She was also wearing a pair of black pants with a piece of cut material wrapped around her waist like a skirt that matched the color of her scarf but slowly faded into pink and finally to black as it tapered off near her knees. Her high heeled boots went up to her knees and were plated with metal for protection. She also had on a pair of bracers and tight-fitting leather gloves. But the only thing that Ruby felt like she could focus on was the girl's weapon. Ruby was so in awe over it that she almost didn't hear the rest of the conversation.

"And this is…what was it again? Rupee?" asked Smoak, pointing to Ruby

"Um, no, it's Ruby, Ruby Rose," corrected the red head with an awkward laugh.

"Charmed," said the girl, and she shook Ruby's hand," Orchid, Orchid Ayaka," said the spearwoman. Suddenly Ruby remembered the name of the flower in her hair and the scent, it was an Orchid, just like her name. Ruby looked at her hand, and she had a similar ring as both Smoak and Shadow of a winding snake. Out of the corner of her eyes, Ruby also saw another ring on Orchid's other hand. This one had a smaller band but had a large gemstone affixed to it. Ruby thought it was an interesting ring and wondered if that had any meaning as well.

"Oh that's right, Ruby!" said Smoak, snapping his fingers, "Forgive me, I'm terrible with names and faces."

"Believe me!" said the new girl as she leaned in really close to Smoak, "If it wasn't attached to him, Smoak would forget his own head." Smoak and Orchid made some weird noises and it almost seemed like they were having a childish argument. The more noises that they made, the closer they got until their noses were almost touching. And then Smoak snuck forward and kissed her. Everyone seemed to have a different reaction, Sun, and his team all whooped and hollered, Ruby was confused and Yang seemed crushed.

"Whoa, Smoak, I knew that you and your team was close, but I never knew that you were that close!" said Yang, picking her jaw up off the ground.

Smoak and Orchid separated and the two blushed. Smoak reached a hand forward and brushed Orchid's hair out of her face and behind her ear and he stared into her blue eyes. Orchid responded by starting to blush again. Smoak then raised an eyebrow at the raven-haired beauty almost like he was posing an unvoiced question, and Orchid blushed even more and then slowly nodded as if she understood. Smoak laughed and he took another large bow. He held Orchid's hand with the gemstone ring in the air as he did so all could see and she performed a small curtsey.

"Ladies and gentleman! May I introduce the future, Mrs. Cardiff?" Suddenly that small band had all the meaning in the world.

Sun and his team all broke into cheers and applause. Ruby even felt a little excited and she clapped along with a big smile on her face and a small cheer. Yang, on the other hand, was devastated. She nearly fainted and fell on the ground. Ruby turned around to see what happened. Yang was laid out on the ground, her eyes wide, hair splayed around her and her voice faint,

"Meet him…and he's already…engaged…" squeaked Yang. The cheering and laughing stopped and Sun stepped over Yang and put his hand on Smoak.

"He-heh, never meet your idols, am I right?" said Sun with an awkward chuckle. Sun tried to bring all the attention away from Yang by focusing on Smoak and Orchid, "So, you guys leave for a few years and you come back all engaged! I thought that you two hated each other when you started out at the academy!"

"Well, spend enough time with a guy and he starts to grow on you," said Orchid fondly, staring at Smoak.

"And I said life is short, so what the heck? Why not spend it with someone who won't ever let you get away with anything?" said Smoak, leaning close to Orchid. The two spent a moment staring into each other's eyes and then they kissed again. The couple spent a few moments lip-locked and then broke apart. Orchid then slapped Smoak on the chest.

"What?" asked Smoak with a worried look.

"Ash! We forgot her, she's saving us a spot to set up!" said Orchid, "I was just supposed to come tell you we finally found a spot and then go right back!"

"Oh, crap!" said Smoak and Shado in unison, "We need to go!" said the three team members in a rush and they all took off across the field in a hurry.

"What's going on? Who's Ash?" asked Ruby

"C'mon Ruby, We'll explain when we get there!" said Scarlet, taking off after Team SSAO

Ruby hauled Yang up off the ground and shook her until she was conscious.

"Ahh! Ruby! Wha- What's going on?!"

"No time to explain, we need to go save Ash!" said Ruby, taking her sister's hand and running after the rest of the group.

"We need to save some ash? Where's the fire?" shouted Yang as she got pulled along.

Ruby and Yang finally caught up with Team SSSN and SSAO and when they did, they saw Shado frantically running around shouting into the trees at the edge of the field.

"Ash?! Ash! Ashley!"

"What is he looking for?" asked Yang

"I think it's his pet bird?" theorized Ruby

"What? What would give you that impression?" asked Yang

"Well, why else would he be searching the trees?"

Smoak looked over his shoulder and put a finger up to his lips to signal for everyone to be quiet. Ruby and Yang gulped, there seemed to be a different expression on Smoak's face that wasn't like his usual cheerful self. Shado looked up into the branches of all the trees one by one and rushed around like a chicken with his head cut off. Finally, when he had gotten to a particularly overgrown tree, Shado looked up and then sighed.

"You almost gave me a heart attack!" said Shado. Without warning, Shado leaped into the branches of the tree and everyone saw him disappear into its branches and begin to whisper. After a few crackling noises subsided, everyone could hear what he was saying clearly.

"Look, I'm here! I'm sorry I left. Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere."

"Think he found his bird?" hissed Ruby at Yang. All Yang could do was a shrug.

"Hey, c'mon, where's that smile I love? Let me see it!"

"His bird smiles?" whispered Ruby

"C'mon Ash, smile for me!"

"What is he doing to that bird?" mumbled Ruby. Smoak looked back and shushed Ruby again. Ruby yelped and went back to listening as hard as she could for what Shado was saying.

"If you don't, I'm going to tickle you!"

"He tickles his bird?" asked Ruby and Yang just shrugged once again.

Ruby heard Shado laugh and make silly noises, but then she thought he heard his voice get really high as a shrill scream came from the branches.

"No, stop! Stop! Stop it Shado, we're going to fall out of the tree! Ahh!" Ruby then realized that it wasn't Shado with the high pitched voice.

It was something else, or rather it was someone else. In the time that it took that someone to finish their sentence, Shado, and a girl came crashing out of the tree. Shado landed first and the girl second, right on top of Shado. The girl screamed as Shado groaned and Ruby thought that her hair was going to stand on end just based on how blood-curdling the scream was. The girl gasped and pulled Shado's hood back to expose his face. She then hugged him close and refused to let go. Shado coughed and gasped and convulsed as he forced air through his windpipe.

"Oh my gosh, Shado! Are you okay?!" shouted the girl. Shado tried nodding, but it was hard to do through coughing and jerking around and also in the position he was in.

"Shado!" shouted the girl. Shado was finally able to calm down a bit and get some air back into his lungs.

"A-Ashley!" sputtered Shado, "I'm fine! You just knocked the air out of me!"

"Oh my gosh! I don't know what I would have done if you had gotten hurt!" cried the girl Shado identified as Ashley.

"Ash?" asked Shado

"Yes?" replied Ash, halting her tears.

"You're hurting me now…" said Shado. He was right, he didn't look all that comfortable in the position he was in. The girl gasped, and let go. But then her expression changed and she pushed Shado down with a bit of force.

"Ow…" wheezed Shado

"You did that on purpose!" pouted Ash

"So what…if I did…" panted Shado, "You…still love me…"

"Hmmm…" pondered the girl. Then her face lit up and she clasped her hands, "You're right!" and like that, she swooped down and pecked Shado on the lips. Suddenly there was more cheering. Sun and his team were whooping and clapping. And like that as well, Yang was back to sulking.

"Find out he has a twin…he's taken as well!"

Ash got off of Shado's chest, and then helped the blonde twin up. Once on his feet, he took Ashley's hand and the two of them rejoined the rest of the crowd. As they walked back, Ruby noticed that her hair was a striking flame-red color that slowly faded to a dark shade of gray and all of it was braided into a long braid down her back. Her eyes were a brown color and they looked very piercing. She wore a faint shade of pink lip-gloss and had a few faint freckles. Overall, she seemed like a pretty plain person despite her hair.

Strapped across her back was a bow and quiver full of many different colored fletched arrows. Strapped into the leather belt that lead to the quiver were many small, feathered darts, each one with a different colored tuft on the end. Ruby wondered how those were used since they seemed too short to be fired with the bow. Ashley's clothes seemed very plain as well. She wore a burnt charcoal colored dress that matched the ends of her hair with a dark green shawl over it. The shawl was short and went barely to her elbows. Attached to the shawl was a small hood that was the same color. She also wore a pair of dark colored leather moccasins that muffled her footsteps as she walked. Ruby noticed yet again that Ash had the same snake-shaped ring on her hand along with a small band and a colored gemstone on the other hand. Sun noticed this as well and he gasped and pointed to it.

"Hey! I guess Smoak and Orchid aren't the only ones!" Shado and Ash blushed and she held up the ring for everyone to see. It was a different color than that of Orchid's. Orchid's ring had a slightly iridescent lavender color, and Ash's was a deep red.

"Yeah, you're right, Ash and I are engaged," said Shado.

"Well, congrats man! I guess this means that you guys won't just be teammates anymore! You're family!" said Neptune

"Never really thought of it that way…" said Smoak

"Yeah, but I guess that's right," said Orchid, leaning up on her fiancée, "Hey Ash, that makes us sisters!" Ash looked at Orchid and gave a small smile, but then stopped when she noticed everyone looking at her. She brushed some of her hair in front of her eyes and then lowered her head. Ruby noticed and felt kind of confused. Sage noticed Ruby's confusion and leaned over and whispered to her.

"Ashley has a fear of large crowds and because of that isn't very social. When she gets scared, she runs away and hides. Shado is the only one I know who ever really knew how to calm her down. So I'm not all that surprised that they ended up engaged." Ruby almost felt her heart melt when she heard the story, it was cute that Ash had someone who could help her and even better that they were now together.

Sage continued, "However, I think we're all surprised about Smoak and Orchid. They hated each other in the academy and wanted nothing to do with each other. But what are you going to do when the headmaster pairs the two of you together for four years? You have to learn to get along." Ruby was suddenly reminded of her first days at Beacon when she and Weiss were paired together. At first, they hated each other, but in the months to follow they became fast friends.

"So have you told your families yet?" asked Sun. All four of them bowed their heads and seemed to act awkward. Each of the team members launched into their explanations.

"Well, while I'm sure our parents would be overjoyed that we went and got engaged, our mom still thinks that we were going to get married to some girls we gave promise rings to back in Vacuao," said Smoak and Shado nodded, he took a gulp when Smoak mentioned their mother.

"I don't even want to think what my parents would say if I said I got engaged to someone from Vacuao," said Shado after Ash whispered in his ear. She seemed even more scared and nervous than usual. Ruby was kind of thrown by having messages relayed through Shado, but everyone on Team SSSN seemed like it was the norm. Shado continued after Ash whispered again, "My father would probably disown me and cut all ties that I have to the family company back in Atlas."

"While my parents always knew that I was going to get married, they thought I'd marry into some prestigious family or an important huntsman team from back home in Mistral," said Orchid.

"But you guys are the coolest team I've ever met!" protested Yang, "Smoak is the foremost of the bounty hunters of SNKE!"

"SNKE?" asked Ruby

"Yeah, there are four huntsman from all over Remnant that are the best bounty hunters ever known. Each one of them known for their unique set of skills, together they make up SNKE. See the ring that Smoak has?" said Yang, pointing to the ring on his finger. Now Ruby understood what those rings were, but she didn't understand why all of them had them.

"Yeah, you never explained why Yang called you a bounty hunter earlier. What happened man? I thought you were going to join up with the huntsman clans!" said Sun.

"Well, things changed," said Shado with a hint of anger in his voice, "Huntsman clans in Vacuo want teams trained in Vacuo or all the team members to be from Vacuao due to the rough background. But Ash is from Atlas, and Orchid is from Mistral. And the story was the same in Mistral, they wouldn't take us either because we all weren't from Mistral. It was almost the same story everywhere we went. In order for us to keep off the streets, I got us into bounty hunting."

"I didn't know that the Kingdoms could get choosy about who they accepted work from," said Ruby, "I thought all jobs were available to any Huntsman team that wanted to take the job!"

"Yeah, well, they can when you have a record in their Kingdom," said Smoak with a scowl, "And they won't even come out to say it to your face either. Instead they'll give you some crap excuse on why they won't extend you the job like how each of your team members need to be from the same kingdom or else."

"But I thought you guys were performers," said Neptune, trying to clear the tension in the air.

"Yeah, but that doesn't pay enough to put a roof over our heads or food on the table. You have to pick one or the other. And let's face it, being a huntsman is in our blood. Both of our parents were huntsman. So were Orchid's, heck, and even Ash's dad was as well," said Shado

"And let's honest, I want a family one day," said Smoak, and he looked at Orchid. Orchid looked back and smiled, "And I don't want them to have to grow up like Shado and I did," said Smoak and Shado agreed, "We want a permanent house that we don't have to move from or rebuild every few months."

"But bounty hunting? There had to be at least a dozen different options before that…" said Sun

"Well sure, but none of them paid like bounty hunting. And if Shado and I ever have a chance of impressing our future in-laws, it's not going to be with low rung jobs that make us scraps compared to their families," said Smoak

"So, this isn't about the money, it's about the prestige that comes with it," said Scarlet

"Of course, how many people can say they are part of SNKE?" said Smoak

"But I always thought SNKE was a team in itself, and not a group of teams," said Sage posing the question on everyone's mind.

"Yeah, I always knew that Smoak was a member, but I didn't know he worked with a team, until today that is," said Yang. Ruby could detect a hint of jealousy in her voice.

"Let me let you in on a little secret," said Smoak and everyone leaned in close, "We do that to confuse people about our numbers and so that no one actually knows who's on the rest of SNKE."

"But everyone knows that you are!" said Yang

"I know, I do that so that the rest of my team can escape public ridicule and be safe," said Smoak

"Ridicule?" asked Ruby, "Why would you be ridiculed?"

"Well, it's a trade-off, despite all the prestige that it comes with, bounty hunting isn't the most honest profession, and we also have a lot of people that would love to see us dead. So I make myself known as a member of SNKE so that I can protect the ones I love," said Smoak, looking down at Orchid.

"Well wouldn't people be able to figure out that you don't work alone and instead are on a team?" said Yang, "I mean, it seems like you spend a lot of time with each other. Someone is bound to figure it out eventually."

"Why else do you think our team name is 'Shadow'," said Shado, "It's not because it was named after me I'll tell you that."

"Well it was at first," said Smoak with a grin on his face, "In the academy we were assigned that name, and it was because Shado was the team leader."

"But…" said Orchid, "After a major blunder during a training exercise, Shado got demoted and Smoak became our leader," Shado grumbled something under his breath

"Confuse a relic with a Nevermore egg and no one ever lets you forget it…"

"But what does all this have to do with your team name?" asked Yang

"Well our team is known for stealth, in fact, we're so good at it that no one ever really knows we're a team."

"What do you mean?" asked Ruby

"Unless we're on a mission, we aren't Team SSAO," said Smoak, rotating his ring. The ring gave a small hiss and it warped into a regular band with no markings or indication that the ring was just a snake. Ruby and Yang gasped, and they weren't the only ones, Sun and his team seemed shocked too.

"Okay, you have to show me how you did that…" said Sun with a bit of jealousy

"Magic…" said Smoak with a mischievous glint in his eye. The rest of the team spun their rings and they all turned to regular rings.

"Instead we're Team SOAS, Team Sorcerers! Traveling performers who make our living performing magic for the people!" said Smoak with a bit of theatrics. His shout got the attention of a few people. People started to congregate around and everyone on Team SSAO started to smile.

"Performers, all of you? Even…?" said Yang with a side look at Ash

"Ash may be nervous in large crowds, but when she performs, I'll tell you she's something else…" said Shado. Ash looked up at her fiancée and the two hugged. Ruby heard the blonde whisper something to Ash,

"You'll be fine, just like we practiced, and I won't be going too far…" Ash nodded

"Will the members of Team SSSN please report to the tournament booth?" said a voice over the loudspeaker, "There are some matters that need to be discussed."

"Well, I guess we'll have to catch up later!" said Sun and he and the rest of his team all bid farewell to SSAO but not before they all high-fived and fist-bumped each other

"So, would you girls like to see some magic?" asked Smoak, turning to face Ruby and Yang.

"Sure!" said Ruby

"I don't kn-" started Yang

"Oh come now Yang, it will only take a minute, and I'm sure you'll like this," said Smoak pulling a deck of cards and a set of metal cups and cloth balls out of his duster pockets, "You might even win some money…" the blonde said pulling out a wallet full of lien.

"We might have…a few minutes," chuckled Yang.

Orchid came up behind Smoak and kissed him on the cheek before wandering off into the crowd with a handful of coins to perform a routine she gave a high pitched whistle and Smoak whistled back. Under his breath, he gave a low wolf whistle. Orchid heard him and turned around to blow her fiancée a kiss. Before she left, she gave a look that Smoak drew back from. She also whispered something about 'not again this time' and then turned to walk away. Smoak chuckled nervously and Orchid started drawing a crowd to perform to. Shado pulled out another deck of cards and set of cups and balls and gave a low whistle that sounded like a bird call. Smoak whistled in return and his twin wondered off into the crowd. Ash was the last to leave with a deck of cards of her own. So too whistled and Smoak whistled back.

"What are you guys doing?" asked Ruby, "All that whistling?"

"It's how we keep in contact with each other, that way we can wander off from each other and still know where everyone is," said Smoak, "Here, let me show you."

Smoak let out a high pitched whistle and almost on cue, there came three whistles in succession. First was Orchid with her whistle; Ruby heard her from a few tents over. Then Shado from the other side of the thicket of trees. Then Ash from close to where Shado was. Smoak then whistled again almost as if he was sounding an all clear.

"It's also how we communicate during missions," said Smoak, "We've almost developed an entire language using just whistles," said Smoak.

Yang looked at Smoak with a mixture of disbelief and admiration for something so ingenious. But Ruby was super excited, she looked at her sister and Yang looked at Ruby. Ruby's look seemed to be suggesting that they come up with their own mission language to use. Yang shrugged, unsure of what to do.

"Now, on to that magic trick I promised," said Smoak, opening the deck of cards and dumping them into his hand.

"Yes, what was that you said earlier about money?" said Yang with a gleam in her eye.

From under his duster, Smoak produced a small, spindly table with a felt top. With a snap, Smoak set up the table and spread the cards face down on the table for Yang and Ruby to see. The cards looked well-worn, but Smoak handled them with ease and great dexterity. After a few showy moves that made Yang and Ruby hum with amazement, Smoak spread the cards once more face up.

"So, as you can see, each card is different, and no two cards are alike, would you say that's true?"

"Yes," agreed the sisters.

"You can get a deck of cards like this anywhere, like perhaps any magic shop," joked Smoak and he picked the cards back up. Ruby laughed out loud and Yang gave a small chuckle.

"Now then, for this trick I will lay a bit of money on the line," said Smoak pulling out a one lien note from his wallet, "And to make it more interesting, why don't you two match it?"

Ruby was hesitant, but Yang was all over the bet. Pulling out her wallet, the blonde slapped down a matching one lien note and then waited for Ruby to do the same.

"There's no need if you don't feel like it, Ruby dear," said Smoak. Ruby wasn't sure, but Smoak nodded to show that it was okay and she put her wallet back.

"We can just make this between us…" said Smoak as he turned back to face Yang.

"Then let's make this interesting!" said Yang pulling out a twenty lien note and slapping it down next her one lien.

"Excellent!" said Smoak and he too pulled out a twenty, and then he gave the cards a little shuffle. Smoak gave a small whistle and Ruby heard Shado whistle back. But, none of the others whistled back. Ruby was confused, last time, everyone made a response. Smoak nodded and then continued with his trick, "Now then, for this trick, all I want you to do is focus on this card here…" said Smoak producing a red ace from out of thin air.

"Whoa! How did you-?" said Yang.

"Magic…" whispered Smoak, a glint in his eye, "Now then focus on this card and put out your hand…" said Smoak. Yang obliged and Smoak placed the card in her hand face down.

"Now, understand that I will try to trip you up," said Smoak, "It wouldn't be called a trick if I didn't try to do at least one thing tricky." He continued with a few flairs and fancy moves. He picked up the ace from Yang's hand and twirled it around some, even making it shoot out of the deck and catching it with the other hand before returning it to Yang's open hand.

"Now then, for the money here on the table, what do you think the card in your hand is?"

"A red ace!" said Yang, and Smoak nodded to her for her to turn it over. Sure enough, the card was a red ace.

"Alright!" celebrated Yang, and she quickly picked up Smoak's money

"Hold up!" said Smoak, he looked panicked and nervous suddenly. He slammed his hand down on the table and Ruby was afraid that the spindly table would snap under his weight.

"What?" said Yang, "You said if I guessed the card right I could get the money? Are you saying you're going back on the bet?"

"No, no…" chuckled Smoak nervously, he looked around, but paused slightly when he passed over the spot where Orchid was. He licked his lips nervously and his hands were trembling. Ruby didn't know what came over Smoak, but it seemed to have something to do with Orchid, that much she knew for sure.

"We're not done yet!" Smoak said suddenly, and he pulled out his wallet again, and produced twenty-two lien from his wallet and put it next to the money that Yang just won.

"Give that card back and let's try a different game." Yang gave back the card and then Smoak pulled out two other cards from the deck. Ruby heard Shado whistle and Smoak whistled back. Again, no response from the others. Placing the three cards on the table, Ruby could see that they were the same red ace and the two black aces.

"Focus on that red ace and follow where it goes," said Smoak flipping the cards over and giving them a quick shuffle around the table. Ruby was hesitant, she had seen someone doing a game like this before, but Yang was set on staying in the game. Once Smoak was done, Yang pointed at the card on the left. Smoak flipped it over and revealed the red ace.

"Yes!" said Yang, and she pumped her fist in the air. She grabbed Smoak's money and added it to her growing pile.

"Okay, lucky guess," said Smoak. He seemed hurt and even more nervous than before. But he quickly regained his composure and said, "Look, you can either keep the money and walk away or I you can try to double your money again," he said pulling out another stack of lien. Ruby heard Shado whistle again and Smoak whistled back. Again, no response from the others.

"Yang…" said Ruby, "Are you sure about this?"

"Heck yeah!" said Yang, and she pushed her pile next to Smoak's and he turned all the cards face down again. After another shuffling of the cards, Yang pointed at the middle card this time. And again Smoak flipped over the red ace.

"Yes!"

"Go again?" Smoak seemed more nervous and there was another exchange of whistles between the twins

"You bet!" Ruby was starting to feel uneasy

"Yang…" she cautioned.

"Don't worry Ruby, I got this…" said Yang as she followed the cards around the table. Yang pointed to one of the cards. Red ace, more celebrating, and more money placed on the table. This went on for what felt like forever, and Ruby was getting nervous that Yang was going to lose all her money, but with every round, Yang's money doubled. Yang seemed so good that even Ruby started to feel a rush of excitement every time Yang pointed to exactly where that red ace was. Eventually, Smoak's nervousness seemed to grow more and more permanant. And every so often Shado would whistle only for Smoak to whistle back.

"One more round!" said Smoak after what felt like the hundredth. The twin held open his wallet and nothing came out.

Yang laughed, "I'd love to man, but it looks like you're broke! You've got nothing to bet with!" Smoak fumed as he watched Yang start to count the money that she won.

"Not so fast!" said Smoak. He reached into his duster and pulled out two small cylinders. With a flick, the cylinders extended and Ruby realized what they were. They were matching nightsticks, and Ruby thought that Smoak meant to fight them. Instead, the blonde twin placed the weapons on the table.

"I will bet Nightbane and Dawn, all or nothing!" said Smoak.

"What? You're weapons?" said Yang, "Why would I want those?"

"Are you not sure you can win?" challenged Smoak

"Yang…" cautioned Ruby

"No, I know I will win," said Yang, I'm even willing to bet…my weapon!" said Yang, trying to up the ante.

"Yang…"

"And all the money that Ruby has and her Crescent Rose!" said Yang pulling the weapon off her sister's back, and pinching her wallet in the process.

"Hey!" complained Ruby, "Yang, don't!"

"Calm down Ruby, I got this!" said Yang, putting all of the money and equipment on the table with a thunk.

"This time we won't use cards," said Smoak, "We'll use these," he said pointing to the metal cups and cloth balls.

"Same concept," he said, "Follow where the ball goes and see if you get lucky!"

Smoak placed a little red ball under one of the cups and started rotating them around the table. Every so often, Ruby saw the blonde magician lift the cup up and scurry it under one of the other little cups. Round and round he went, not stopping for what felt like an eternity. Ruby thought she lost the ball a couple times, but she caught glimpses of it as it rushed out from one of the cups and under another one. Once finished, Smoak grabbed the corner of the table and gave the table a spin to add one last bit of confusion. Smoak let out a musical whistle and Orchid responded this time. Ruby was confused as to why Orchid would respond since up until now she hadn't been responding all the other times. But she couldn't really focus on that, Smoak stood confidently with his arms crossed over his chest. Ruby then remembered what was going on and what was at stake. Looking at the table, the redhead was sure that no one could be able to tell where that little ball had gotten to. Ruby was lost after the table spin, but Yang looked super confident.

"Well, where is it?"

"It's right…" Yang started, but then she froze, "Um, uh…" Yang looked confused.

"Well?"

"Yang! I thought you had this!" hissed Ruby

"I do, I do!" hissed Yang back, "It's right…um…"

Ruby started to panic. If Yang wasn't able to find it, not only were they out of their money but their weapons too. Ruby loved her weapon and wasn't about to be swindled out of it. Retracing the steps, Ruby began to go over the game in her mind. She could see where the ball went, and even calculated in the table spin. After going over it one more time, Ruby was sure she knew where the ball was.

"It's here, it's under this one!" said Ruby pointing to the left cup. Sweat suddenly broke out on Smoak's brow.

"A-are you sure?" stuttered Smoak

"Yes! You thought you could confuse us with the table spin, but I'm positive it's under this one," said Ruby, "And I think you know it too!"

Smoak licked his lips and started to breathe heavy. He pulled at his shirt collar and tried to not look nervous. Smoak pursed his lips and let out two whistles in a row. One was high pitched, and the other sounded like a bird call. After the first whistle, everyone on Team SSAO responded. Ruby heard some disappointed groans from the crowd and she also heard in the background as Orchid dismissed the crowd she was performing to. After the second whistle, Shado responded and Smoak suddenly started to breathe easy.

"Well why don't you go ahead and check…" said Smoak.

Ruby reached her hand out full of anticipation. She was sure that she was right and put her hand on the cup.

"Are you sure you don't want to change your answer?" asked Smoak.

Ruby shook her head and then picked up the cup slowly. She was nervous, as was Yang. Ruby started to see some of the felt underneath, but no ball. But she was sure that it could have just been up against the back of the cup. Ruby lifted the cup fully off the table to reveal…no ball.

"Wha- N-no! I knew it was under here!" said Ruby

"Oh, I'm sorry, I guess I'll be taking all my money back now!" said Smoak, "And your weapons…"

Ruby was in disbelief. She was certain that the ball was under that cup.

"Yang, do something!" said Ruby, but Yang seemed miles away

"Yang, what's wrong!?" said Ruby, shaking her sister, "You need to do something or else he's going to get away with all our stuff!" Still no response.

Ruby was frustrated and turned on Smoak.

"I demand a rematch!"

"Sorry girly, it was all or nothing. And now I have all and you have nothing!" laughed Smoak.

Ruby growled and tried to pick up the other two cups. Smoak shouted and started to try to stop her.

"No!" said Ruby, "You need to show me where the ball is!"

"No I don't…" said Smoak through a chuckle

"Yes you do," said Ruby, "Besides, we lost, and so what's the harm in showing us where it was?"

"Oh trust me, you don't need to know…" said Smoak, trying to pry Ruby's hands off the cups. Smoak started to whistle in desperation now.

Ruby wasn't going to stand for this. Aiming a kick through the table legs and upward towards Smoak's groin, she made contact and Smoak groaned. While he was distracted, Ruby lifted up the other two cups and found nothing underneath.

"You were cheating! There was no ball!" shouted Ruby

"Y-yes there was…" said Smoak, trying to recover.

"Then where was-?" Then the ball appeared. It materialized where the third cup was, and exactly where Ruby pointed.

"It- It was invisible?"

"And now it's time for a certain someone to pull a vanishing act of their own…" Ruby looked up in time to see Smoak vanish from view, along with all their money and weapons.

"No!" shouted Ruby, "Yang come on! He's getting away!"

"Huh?" said Yang as she was started back, "Wait, where's Smoak?"

Ruby didn't know what to say.

"Where our money, and….where is….our…weapons!" said Yang, her eyes changing from purple to red. To vent her frustration, Yang punched one of the nearby trees. The tree exploded into a shower of splinters and Yang panted and growled. After the dust settled, Ruby noticed a certain blonde twin cowering behind the tree. Smoak stood up and looked at the splintered remains of the tree. Yang and Ruby both saw him and all the color drained out of his face.

"Oh, crap…"


	3. Chapter 2- Flashback

Hey, guys! Hope you enjoy this chapter. Please, like or comment so I know whether I'm doing a good job, and what I could work on for future chapters. This section is a little long I know, but once I started writing, I couldn't stop! I could have kept going for at least another few pages, but decided I just needed to be done. Please like and follow this story if you'd like regular updates. I'm already hard at work on the next chapter which continues where I left off in chapter one. I just felt like I needed to provide some more back story for Smoak and Shado before proceeding. So read, enjoy! And please, let me know what you think! I can't improve if no one gives me the direction to do so. Don't hesitate to PM with any questions, concerns, suggestions or if you'd just like to talk!

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Ch. 2- Flashback

 **Five Years Ago**

 **Setting: A small frontier town in Vacuo**

"Look, guys, I'm sure we can talk this out!" said Smoak stumbling out the door of a local casino. He was trying to gather up a stack of fallen playing cards and totter away all at the same time.

"Talk?!" said one fierce looking local, "What's there to say other than you're playing with a loaded deck?!"

"Look, I can explain!" said Smoak

"What's there to explain?" said another local, "As soon as we're done collecting our money from you, we'll turn you over to the city police!"

"Maybe we can come to some agreement where I don't go to jail?" The locals thought for a second and then said in unison, "Nope…"

"Well see here twerp, you give us back our money, and we'll flip a coin to see who we turn you over to: the guards or the Grimm," threatened the largest member of the growing mob.

The man loomed well over Smoak and was very intimidating. The man's eyes were small and beady, but the pupils were small and slit-like. A forked tongue snaked out of the man's mouth, and he let out a low hiss. Smoak gulped when he realized that the man was a Faunus; part man, part lizard. But at the mention of a coin flip, the blonde gave a grin.

"Whatcha going on 'bout?" said the lizard man when he noticed Smoak's grin.

"Okay, here's all your money back," said Smoak jumping up and pulling fistfuls of lien from his pockets and shoving them all back into the pockets of the members of the mob. "And here, I'll even provide the coin to flip!" said Smoak pulling out a coin from his pocket and positioning it to flip it on the edge of his finger.

"Look, how about we take two options here, heads I get to walk away, and tails you can do with me what you want!"

"Well how is that fair?" said another member

"It's a 50/50 chance! You have as much a chance as I do and vice versa. This way no one gets cheated!" said Smoak tossing the coin into the air a few times and catching it again. The members of the mob all nodded in agreement and Smoak broke out into a grin again.

"Wait…" said the lizard man, "How do we know you aren't cheating us now?"

"Well, that's a chance you'll have to take!" said Smoak continuing to flip the coin. Everyone in the mob was focused on the currency now. The lizard man didn't seem to take that very well, though. His muscles rippled, and his jaw clenched until Smoak followed up by saying,

"I also have to take the chance that you fine gentlemen…" said Smoak with a nervous chuckle.

"Won't decide that no matter what I flip, that you'll just choose to hand me over _to the authorities_ regardless," said Smoak putting emphasis on his words, in an attempt to try and influence the choice of the group.

Smoak rolled up the sleeves of his long-sleeved, billowy shirt and took a deep breath. The blonde took the coin and balanced it again on the edge of his finger. He pumped his arm up and down a couple of times in preparation for the toss. Everyone was on edge, including Smoak. With one more upward thrust, Smoak threw the coin into the air. The coin went high into the air and disappeared into the light of the sun. The coin came tumbling down again, end over end. All eyes were on the coin as it dropped into the dirt. The coin kicked up a cloud of the orange dust and obscured the result. Everyone waited for the cloud of dust to dissipate and for the coin to come to its final rest. When it did, it came up heads. Everyone in the mob gasped and looked up at Smoak. But the blonde had vanished.

"Hey! Where'd the twerp go?!" said the lizard man as he stepped off the front step of the casino to look around the small square of the town.

By this point, almost everyone in town had gathered to watch what was happening. Not much happened in town, and so the potential for a fight broke up the humdrum of everyone's boring life. Everyone was gathered around the casino to watch what was happening. And everyone was so focused on the coin toss that no one noticed when Smoak vanished. No one could see his boot prints going off anywhere; it just looked like he had vanished into thin air. The members of the mob all started to shout and spread out to search for the blonde con artist. Even a few of the members of the town began to lend a hand, figuring if they helped the growing mob that they might be able to benefit from it somehow. In all the search, the town's members started to kick up a lot of dust. Many people began to pull out handkerchiefs and bandanas to cover their faces to keep it off, and out of their eyes and noses. In fact, the town stirred up so much dust that it was getting hard to see. Many were relying on their hearing, but many of the Faunus members were using their other, more natural senses. Everyone in town was quiet as they searched for Smoak. But it made it all so much easier when the blonde sneezed.

"Oh crap!" said Smoak. The dust started to settle, and many people could see it as it settled on Smoak's hair and clothing. Smoak materialized in front of the group again with a small chuckle.

"Get 'im!" Shouted the lizard man. Everyone made for Smoak, but a shot rang out in the air.

The ball thudded at the feet of the lizard Faunus, and everyone looked to see from whence it came. Through the dust, people all looked at the clock tower. From behind the façade that held up the clock tower, everyone saw a person with a hood and face mask holding a rifle. The man pulled back his hood and lowered his face mask. Everyone had to squint through the settling dust, but someone with a better view gasped. Everyone looked at the person who was raising a ruckus, and the look on their face looked like one mixed with shock and surprise.

"T-there he is!" said the person, pointing to the man at the clock tower, "B-but he's still right there!" said the same townsperson looking back at Smoak.

The dust settled some more, and everyone could see who it was that was standing on the clock tower. At first glance, the man looked blonde, but as his eyes swept the crowd, it became more apparent that he looked the same as the blonde con artist. Everyone else gasped and started to look between the two blondes. Smoak stood frozen in spot, cowering slightly as he waited for the crowd to lay hold of him. He peeked out between his arms that was using to shield himself. He couldn't see much other than the entire town looking at him and then back at another point. Smoak stopped cowering and looked at the clock tower. He looked up and saw his twin, Shado.

"Hey! Shado, thanks for showing up brother! You're the best twin a guy could have!" Shado tried shushing his twin, but the damage was already done.

Almost everyone in town looked on the verge of bloodlust. After Smoak's comment, half the town turned on the blonde con artist and slowly advanced on him. The other half was busy looking for a way to either get up to the clock tower or for Shado to come down to the ground. Smoak looked for an escape, but his options were quickly diminishing. Shado also knew that he couldn't spend forever up in the clock tower, but the building was slowly surrounded. It didn't look good for the Twins. Suddenly, two shots rang out in the air, and everyone flinched, and a couple of people screamed. Everyone spun around to see a team of four persons in the middle of town. There were two girls, and two men in the group, each of them were dressed in elegant clothing and carried flashy weapons. The largest member, a man with many tattoos up his arms, held a revolver aloft, the barrel smoking.

"What the deuce is going on here?!" shouted the man, lowering the gun to his side.

Everyone started clamoring for the man's attention. With everyone talking over each other, no one could understand what was being said. The man scowled again and then fired his gun into the air again. People all covered again, and the inked man pointed his gun at the lizard Faunus.

"You there," the lizard man gasped and tried to shield himself from the man's gun, "What is going on here?"

"W-well you see here…" stuttered the lizard man, "That boy thought he could cheat us out of our money!" he said pointing at Smoak.

The man looked at Smoak; Smoak was trying to use the confusion to slip away. But the man whistled, and one of the girls whipped out a grappling hook and flung it at Smoak. The hook looped around Smoak's feet, and Smoak tripped. Smoak groaned and flopped over, helpless to do anything else. The girl tugged on the line, and Smoak was slowly dragged to the feet of the rest of the team. Smoak twisted around the best he could to look up and saw everyone glaring down at him. Smoak gulped and chuckled and tried scooting away, but the grappling hook girl had a good hold of the line around his feet. Shado thought he would take a leaf out of his brother's book. With the maximum amount of stealth possible, Shado climbed down from the clock tower and started to sneak away. But the gun-toting man saw him and whistled out a second time. The girl whipped out a second grappling hook and snared Shado as well. Once she had reeled in the other blonde, the gunman looked down and scowled.

"What do you two think you're doing?"

"Right now?" said Smoak, "Getting dragged through the dirt…" he said, spitting a wad of dirt and spit at the man's boots. The gunman scowled again and slapped Smoak across the cheek. The blow hit squarely and echoed across the silent town square. Smoak gasped as he recoiled from the blow and held his cheek in his hand.

"We'll be taking these two, you don't have to worry, this is just the beginning for them," said the man straightening up to face the crowd. With a simple hand gesture, the man signaled to his team, and they all walked out of town, dragging the two blondes. The blondes started to gripe and complain as they were dragged through the dirt.

"B-but what about…?" said the lizard Faunus. The tattooed man looked back and glared at the half-lizard. The Faunus shrunk, and everyone fell silent.

Once out of town, the team drug the blondes to a nearby train track and sat them next to the track.

"No, please! I promise I won't do it again!" pleaded Smoak as he heard a train approaching.

"Smoak," said the grappling hook girl in a warning, "You should be quiet," Smoak nodded and zipped his mouth.

The train got closer and closer, and Smoak and Shado started to squirm in nervousness as they thought that their lives were about to end. The lead man with the gun waited until the train was close and signaled to his other team members. The grappling hook girl cut the two twins free but left the rope tied to their feet. The lead man grunted and then hoisted the two twins onto his shoulder. Bearing their weight, the man took off running alongside the train track. The train quickly passed most of the team, but it wasn't soon after that that the team, along with their hostages kept up with one car in particular. The door of the car was wide open, and one by one, the team members jumped into the open car. The tattoo man bounded up next to the train and threw the two twins into the car. Once he was free, the tattoo man jumped and grabbed one of the rails on the side of the car and pulled himself into it. Once everyone was on board, Smoak and Shado started to untie themselves. The two twins looked at each other and began to crack up and laugh.

"Did you see their faces?" laughed Smoak.

"I thought that lizard guy was going to wet himself!" chuckled Shado.

The leader of the team didn't take that very well and crossed the distance between him and the twins in a short amount of time. Winding up, the man whipped his hand and smacked the brothers' one after the other. The two brothers shouted and looked up at the man.

"What did you two numbskulls think you were doing?!" roared the man.

"Ow-!" said Smoak, rubbing his other cheek this time.

"What…did you two…think you were doing!?" repeated the man

"Hey I thought you guys were there to rescue us from the town from lynching us!" said Smoak

"This wasn't a save you two!" said the man, "Why were you in that town!?"

"I don't know Cole," spat Shado, "I thought you guys weren't following us anymore!"

"Well we would Shado if you two could stay out of trouble!" said one of the girls.

"We were handling it!" said Smoak

"Sure…" scoffed the girl, "Just wait until we get you to your parents…"

"Looky here Smoak, The mighty Team CORL, babysitting two brats!" said Shado, elbowing his brother.

"What are you talking about?" hissed Smoak to Shado, "I didn't want mom to know what we were doing! Plus, that was my last double headed coin!"

"What?!" said Shado, "You were cheating them?!" he hissed so that team CORL wouldn't hear them

"Of course! I wasn't about to go into that without some backup plan!"

"So that guy was right! You were cheating them!"

"Yeah, well they'll never know that until they pick up that coin, but I'd suggest that we not go back to that village for a while."

"Well no duh!" said Shado

"At least, it wasn't a total loss…" said Smoak sticking his hands into his pockets. Shado could hear a faint rustle and jingle of coins coming from his twins' pockets. Shado gasped but was cut off by Cole.

"Hey, I wasn't the one to say it," said Cole, ignoring Smoak's comments. He walked over to the open door of the train car to gaze out at the landscape as it streamed through the opening.

"What? That you're babysitting us?" said Smoak focusing back on the particular conversation.

"No, that you guys are a couple of brats," said Cole.

"Hey!" complained the twins.

"We should be out on patrol, but instead, we got a report that someone was causing a commotion in town, so we decided to check it out, and you should be grateful we did," said the other man.

"Whatever…" scoffed Smoak and he started sulking.

Team CORL was an interesting group; their leader, Cole Ryder, was a large man that towered well over the rest of his team. He wore a black shirt with the sleeves removed so everyone could see his muscular physique. Up and down his arms were all sorts of tattoos. He also wore a pair of torn and ripped jeans and a pair of large, leather boots. On his head, he wore a hat that very beat up and it had many loops that made up the central band on the hat. The hat had a wide brim, with the brims pinned up against the side of the cap. Strapped to his side was his weapon, a large Bowie style knife. Smoak knew that Cole was deadly with the knife as well with its transformed version, a revolver pistol. Cole was the strong, silent type that would rather have his weapon do the talking than his words. His eyes were dark and piercing and seemed to match the rest of his appearance. His dark black hair was cropped short under his hat, and even his stubble had a clean appearance. Cole looked very dangerous, but vulnerable at the same time. His clothing didn't offer much in the way of armor, but Shado knew that didn't matter. Cole's semblance was the ability to turn any part of his body into stone when he wanted. Shado was glad that he didn't do that when he had slapped him and Smoak earlier.

The next member, Olive Eden, seemed to be the complete opposite of Cole. She was a small girl with forest green hair and a mousy appearance. She may have looked fragile, but Smoak knew not to cross her. She was the one on the team that wielded the grappling hooks. The grappling hook also transformed into a powerful mace that could crack the skulls of even the most hard-headed Grimm. Olive wore a loose poncho that matched the color of the sand and a tight tank top the color of her hair underneath. She wore a small brimmed cowboy hat and a large, red bandanna around her neck. Her pants were dark and skin-tight and made of leather. Her outfit was finished by a pair of high heeled boots that were zipped up to her ankles. Smoak had a bit more of an appreciation for Olive because compared to the rest of her team, her semblance was more beneficial than the rest of her teammates. She had the ability to stimulate plant growth and control plants. Smoak thought that was cool, but felt like the talent was being wasted in a Huntsman team where all it was used for was death.

Royal 'Roy' Wells seemed to be the most out of place on the entire group. He dressed in the same style of a cavalry officer complete with the blue uniform and black leather boots and white gloves that went past his wrist. His hat was almost the same as Cole's but instead of both brims pinned; it was just the right rim that was pinned to his hat with a gold-looking button. His light blonde hair was slicked back into a ponytail, and his goatee was well trimmed. His blue eyes looked soft and welcoming, but his face was etched with many scars that made him seem off-putting and mean. His right eye had a scar that went through it that caused the iris of that eye to be almost translucent. Strapped to his side was a great officer's sword that transformed into a lever-action rifle as well. Shado was sure to keep his distance from Roy because he knew the officer's semblance gave him the ability to change his density from near-weightless to a bone-crushing burden. Once on a dare, Shado bet Roy that he could stand his weight. The blonde twin swore that his ribs didn't heal up for at least a couple months. And the officer said that wasn't even the max weight that he could reach.

The last member, Lilac Ogden, looked like a futuristic cowboy. Under her wide-brimmed cowboy hat, her hair was a dark purple color and pulled back into a couple of pigtails to keep it out of her eyes. She wore a white shirt with several dirt stains ground into to fabric. She wore a loose fitting leather vest and a large belt with a decorative belt buckle. Hanging from the belt was the holster for her weapons. She also wore a pair of large, leather chaps over her denim jeans. And her boots had a couple of spurs attached that would ring whenever she walked. Attached to almost all of her clothing in vital areas, was a thin layer of protective armor made of a shiny metal. Lilac made sure that her armor was regularly polished to an excellent shine.

Her weapons, a pair of matching pistols, were just a bit larger caliber than the kind of pistol Smoak wanted to make for himself. The guns also transformed into a pair of matching knives as well which Lilac used to get up close and personal with during a fight. Smoak felt a unique connection with Lilac; she had the ability to blend in with her surroundings using her semblance. Smoak and Shado both had the capacity to turn completely invisible as well as intangible, meaning they could pass right through solid objects. Everyone thought it was a little strange that after their auras were unlocked some time after their twelfth birthday that Shado and Smoak both shared a semblance. And not only that but that they had two semblances. Both of them had the ability to turn invisible and intangible at will.

It had taken some practice, but they had both gained the ability to make things around them invisible or intangible as well. They just couldn't both use their shared semblance at the same time or else one of them would become visible again while the other became invisible. It was the same for their ability to become intangible as well. There had been a couple of mishaps before where both of them on separate occasions had almost gotten stuck phasing through walls, one of them would start to go through, and the other brother decided they would try to do it too.

The train car's atmosphere was tense. Team CORL had taken up spots around the boxcar and were keeping silent. Cole was carving a piece of wood to look like a Nevermore with his knife. Olive was passing the time by switching her grappling hooks between the soft rope of the hook and the taut version of her mace. Roy had his weapon out and had removed a sharpening stone from a pouch on his belt and was using it to hone his sword. The ringing sound as he reached the end of each draw set Smoak's hair on end each time, it was a little intimidating what Roy was doing. Even Lilac had pulled out her daggers and was practicing being able to balance them on the tips of her fingers which seemed a hard thing to do in the jarring atmosphere of the train car. So she switched to finding smudges and other imperfections in her armor. Shado had separated his rifle back into katanas and was checking the edge. After he was done with that, he combined the two back into a rifle and started checking his scope. Smoak felt very vulnerable without a weapon and was slightly jealous of his slightly younger twin.

Shado had inherited most of his outfit as well as his weapons from their grandfather who was a recon officer during the Great War. The suit was made for stealth and Smoak thought it suited Shado better. Smoak often joked that Shado was a walking 'shadow' in the get-up. The only reason Shado had inherited it was because he was interested in it was the long and short of it. Smoak didn't like the hood and felt that the suit was too tight in a couple of important places. Instead, he went with a more billowy outfit like his shirt that had very loose sleeves and his cream-colored tunic that went over it. Smoak just felt like his outfit was missing something, but he couldn't quite figure what it was.

However, Smoak thought that Shado's weapon was cool, but the stipulation was that the whole thing was a package deal. To honor their grandfather, their parents decided that Smoak could have both or none at all. And since the suit was part of the deal, Smoak passed on the heirloom to his brother. Since inheriting it, Shado had taken to the weapon right away. He even had made a couple of modifications to the gun like adding the scope and updating the existing bipod to make it more modern. Smoak thought that the sword/rifle combination was cool, but he wanted something more lightweight and compact compared to the long katanas. That left Smoak with the only option to wait until they enrolled in a Huntsman Academy to forge his weapon. Smoak had a couple of ideas he was playing with, but so far nothing stuck. Smoak knew that he wasn't that good at long range as his brother, and felt that he was a more close quarter's fighter. Smoak had no idea what he wanted for the base weapon, but having some gun as a part of it was almost a must. Just something in the way of a small handgun would fit the bill, but probably a smaller caliber compared to Lilac. That way even though he was cutting down on caliber size, he could increase the number of bullets he could carry in each clip, which also helped to increase precision and potentially stopping power if he chose the right rounds.

Smoak couldn't wait until they could go off to the Academy. Their parents were Huntsman once upon a time but had given it up to raise a family. It was almost expected of the twins to follow in their parent's footsteps and become Huntsman as well. Smoak didn't mind; he had looked up to his parent's example and figured it would be the best way to show that by becoming a huntsman himself. The only thing that kept Smoak from wanting to become a Huntsman was teams like Team CORL. Most of Team CORL was from Vacuo (except Olive, who was from Vale), and that meant they knew the lay of the land better than anyone. Vacuo, for the most part, was a very wild country. They still had government and the like in the major cities, but the further you got from the city, the less the law seemed to work. Many frontier towns had little to no governing body, and as such was what gave Vacuo its rough and tumble reputation.

Team CORL knew the system well and were able to use it very often to their advantage. That's what allowed them to walk into town and go away with Smoak and Shado as they did with no question. It was survival of the fittest in Vacuo; and Smoak hated those who acted like they were the toughest, especially Team CORL. It seemed like they were less Huntsman and more bounty hunters and mercenaries for hire. Smoak didn't like that, but his parents knew most of the other's parents and as such they saw each of the members of CORL grow up as well. Despite all of that, Smoak still didn't think very highly of bounty hunters. It felt just like a bunch of criminals hunting other criminals. Smoak couldn't forget though that his parents had become bounty hunters for a bit during their career to get the land they wanted to build the house that Smoak and Shado now called home, but that still didn't make Smoak warm up to the idea.

Speaking of home, as the train rounded the bend, Smoak could see their family's little homestead. The piece of land was nestled between a tall mountain and a lake. Even though he had grown up there, the sight still took Smoak's breath away when he saw it. Everyone stopped what they were doing and stood up from where they were and lined up at the open door. The train slowed slightly as it passed through the curve and everyone jumped from the box car and tumbled down the embankment that led up to the tracks. Everyone stood up and brushed the dirt off themselves. Smoak tossed his hair a bit to get the dirt out of it as well. What he wanted to do was take a bath, but he knew that as soon as he got home that he was going to get a lecture for a while. As soon as everyone had recovered, Team CORL formed a circle around Smoak and Shado, and Olive used her grappling hooks to tie up the twin's hands. Smoak felt like he was going to his execution rather than home. Smoak and Shado were silent as they marched with CORL up to the fence that encircled their house.

This hadn't been the first time Team CORL had to save Smoak and Shado from some sticky situation. Ever since they had found out their semblance, they had been using it for all the wrong reasons. Smoak had always liked the entertainers that would occasionally pass through the area, especially the magicians and scam artists. Many people in Vacuo made a living in that kind of way, hoping to make enough money to immigrate to one of the other kingdoms where life might be better. From a very early age, Smoak had mastered the ability to replicate that same sleight of hand methods for the purpose of cheating people out of their money. However, Smoak always had one big problem; he often relied too much on his semblance to perform the 'magic' moves. Many who knew Smoak as he grew up were able to see right through his ploys. That often meant that Smoak and his brother had to travel ways away to find people who didn't know them. But it had gotten to the point that Smoak became too confident in his semblance's powers that sometimes he messed up and got caught, and sometimes with hundreds and even thousands of lien of people's money.

Their parents often allowed the twins to do what they wanted, but it was getting to the point that they had people show up at their house to try and either win their money back or get it back, often at the end of a weapon. This worried the twin's parents because it was hard enough to protect their family without Smoak causing more problems. They had threatened Smoak a couple of times with military school in Atlas if his attitude didn't shape up. But that didn't faze Smoak. If anything, it encouraged it because he wanted above anything else to leave Vacuo and see the world. It didn't matter how to Smoak how he left; he never wanted to see Vacuo again.

Shado was often a victim of Smoak's scams because he often wanted to make sure his brother was sure when he went out. And being the only one with a weapon between the two of them often meant using it to protect his brother. Shado had often threatened Smoak with not helping him anymore, but every time, Shado went along. He couldn't imagine what would happen to him if his brother were to be harmed if he wasn't there. He had promised his parents that he would look after Smoak, but he never really felt like it would get to this. Their parents had threatened Smoak with from everything to punishment at home, to turning him over to the Kingdom police force and beyond. But Shado knew that his parents would probably never go through with any of it. They loved him and Shado too much to do anything permanent. This is what probably encouraged Smoak to continue to act up because he knew that nothing bad would ever happen. Shado wished that something would be done because he had a nasty feeling one day that Smoak would bite off more than he could chew. And it would be too late for correction at that point because more than likely, Smoak would be dead.

Since the twin's parents knew Team CORL, they often asked them to keep an eye on their sons. However, it seemed like more and more with every passing rescue that they were babysitting them instead. Cole had made it aware of the twin's parent that they wouldn't do that anymore. And the elder Cardiff's made it known that if Smoak and Shado continued to make Team CORL feel that way, which there would be consequences. However, everyone knew that those effects probably wouldn't happen. In fact, it had gotten to the point that Smoak just almost expected Team CORL to show up when they needed them to. But Cole wouldn't have it. He promised the next time that they had to rescue the twins, which they wouldn't be so kind. And that instead of a rescue, it would be more like an arrest.

And so that was the situation that Smoak and Shado found themselves in. Shado was silently cursing Smoak in his mind and also cursing himself for letting himself get dragged into yet another of Smoak's schemes. Smoak was cursing Team CORL, but mostly Cole since this wasn't the first time they butt heads on an issue like this before. As they neared the fence that surrounded the Cardiff home, Shado froze and closed his eyes.

"What is it?" said Smoak

"I don't hear anything…" said Shado, with his eyes still shut

"Big deal, this place is usually so quiet anyway," said Smoak as he kicked a nearby rock, but everyone else caught on to Shado's meaning.

"Smoak, what do you usually hear that you don't hear right now?" said Olive to the blonde twin

"Well, I can tell you what I do hear right now: the water at the lake, the creaking of the windmill, and…" suddenly Smoak realized, "Dad's radio! He usually has that thing going all the time!"

"Yeah, he never shuts that thing off…" said Roy, "Except when?" prompted the officer

"Well only when he goes to bed when he and mom are...um…" Smoak blushed as he thought, but then shook his head in disgust, "And when there's a Grimm attack coming."

Grimm attacks were common where they lived. It was one of the risks of living so far outside of an organized town, or a city with a protective wall. But often it wasn't anything more than a couple small Death Stalkers or Taitju with the occasional Beowolf. But when the homestead got this quiet, it was usually because their dad sensed a large attack on the horizon. Their dad had the ability to sense danger, almost like an extra sense. He could never explain it, but he had never been wrong before. Smoak just wished it worked for other things, like the weather.

"Well, I can tell you, it's not night, and they're not doing…that other thing…" said Lilac, trying to be sensitive, "So the only other option is?" The color drained out of Smoak's face.

"Where's mom and dad?" said Shado, looking around the compound that surrounded their house.

"Forget that!" said Smoak tugging on the line that was attached to his hands, "Where's Sunni?"

The only thing that Smoak seemed to care for the most in this life was his younger sister, Sunni. Sunni was the twin's younger sister by about five years. She had brilliantly blonde hair that went down to the small of her back, and that was drawn into a couple of pigtails on the sides of her head. The hair color almost seemed to run in the family. The only one in the family that didn't have blonde hair was their dad who had bright red hair. Smoak and Sunni were often as thick as thieves, of course when Smoak wasn't being a big brother and tormenting Sunni. Sunni loved her older brothers, but she often favored Smoak over Shado. As such, Sunni had become a bit of a magician's assistant to Smoak, who was teaching her the same slight-of-hand moves he had learned when he was her age. Their parents didn't mind Smoak teaching their daughter to be an entertainer, but they highly discouraged their son to show Sunni the more shady side of deception that Smoak had picked up along the way. Smoak accepted his parent's wishes but was still slowly feeding Sunni some moves that could be used for a dual purpose; one for magic, the other for deception.

Sunni looked like the most innocent girl, but underneath it all, she was crafty. She recently turned twelve, and so that meant that her parents allowed her semblance to be unlocked. After some training, Sunni found out that she had the ability to manipulate light. From that point on, it was almost like she glowed all the time, literally. And using her newfound knowledge, she had started messing with her brothers. When they were teasing her, she would begin to cry and, when she had the twin's attention, she would let off a blinding flash of light that stunned the twins. Sunni would then exact her revenge and then skip off. It didn't matter how much the twins tried to explain it to their parents; they just wouldn't believe that their precious daughter had such a malicious streak. Sunni also found her semblance was a good way of locating her brothers when they decided to go invisible on her. Despite the fact that visually the twins could disappear, they often could be found under the right light because they were still physically there. Their semblance just bent light rays around them, rendering them invisible. With Sunni's power, she could provide that kind of light that often revealed the twins right away.

Usually, when there was a large attack on the horizon, though, the Cardiff's took special precautions. Everyone was to find the family member they were paired with and report to the ridge near the house. The ridge was sheltered and inaccessible from most every direction and even had a small cove built in that could shelter them in the rare case of a Nevermore. The only way to get up the ridge was the use of their dad's weapon. The elder Cardiff's weapon was a system of belt-fed spiked claws that attached to his knuckles and continued up his arms to his shoulders where a pack rested. That was where the spikes were fed onto the remainder of the device. The claws could be moved almost like a chainsaw blade, and shot off of the weapon like crossbow bolts as well. He said he got the inspiration by looking at the Grimm and how some of them would sometimes explode when killed, spraying out an extensive collection of spines that were growing on them, injuring everything around, friend or foe alike.

Once everyone was on the ridge, the family would regroup and from there they could scope out the situation and decide whether to retaliate against the Grimm or not. If it was a reasonably sized pack, usually they fought back to keep the Grimm from destroying their house. If it were a much larger pack, they would wait it out on the ridge until the Grimm moved on. Shado was in charge of Smoak, Their mom looked after their dad, and their father looked after Shado. And Smoak's responsibility…was Sunni.

Since the twins had been gone a while, they didn't know how long their parents had been gone, how soon until the Grimm were to showing up, or where Sunni was. Smoak tugged at the very limits of the line that was attached to his hands as he tried to find his younger sister. He stood at the gate shouting,

"Sunni? Sunni! Sunni, where are you!?"

"Up here!" shouted a voice from behind the house. Everyone looked up past the house towards the ridge. There, everyone could see the elder Cardiff's and Sunni as well who was flashing like a strobe light and waving her arms to get her brothers' attention.

Smoak let out an enormous sigh, and everyone walked around the fence towards the rock face of the ridge. Once they were at the foot of the cliff, Smoak let out a sharp whistle and their dad launched off the top and started shooting spikes from his weapon into the rock. He grabbed hold of the spikes and began to repel down the cliff, shooting spikes as he went both for him and the others to use. Their dad shot the last spike and then jumped the last few feet down onto the ground.

"Mr. Cardiff," acknowledged Cole

"Hey Dad!" said Smoak, trying to wave his hands around the rope. The elder Cardiff took one look at Smoak and Shado and their hands which were bound and raised his eyebrow in suspicion.

"We'll talk about this later," said the elder Cardiff bluntly, "Right now, everyone up!"

Olive cut Smoak and Shado free from their lines so they could climb, and everyone clambered up the cliff face. Once at the top, Sunni gasped and threw herself at Smoak. Smoak laughed and hugged his sister.

"How soon until the Grimm arrive?" said Cole

"I don't know, I just had the feeling this one would be a doozy," said the Cardiff's dad, "You know, real big one…" said the Cardiff's dad with by making a mock explosion noise with his mouth.

"We need to be off..." said Roy trying to descend the cliff.

"Trust me, you don't want to be heading out now, you'll get trampled by Grimm!" said the Cardiff's mom.

"Look, we'd love to stay, but we need to…" said Olive trying to follow the officer.

"Guys!" said Cole calmly, cutting off his anxious teammates. The two froze, and Cole looked at the elder Cardiff's "Brick, Sapphire," Cole mentioned the twin's parents by their first names as he looked at them and then said, "We'd love to help, what can we do to be of assistance?"

"Keep an eye on these three and make sure they don't get into any trouble!" said Brick pointing to his children, "I mean more than some of them are already in!" he finished with a glare at Smoak. Smoak acted like he didn't know what was going on and looked around for what his dad could be staring at.

"Shado," said Sapphire to the blonde and her son immediately knew what to do.

Pulling out his katanas, Shado attached the two together and transformed the swords into his rifle. Shado kicked a couple of rocks out of the way and then laid out flat on his belly. Shado kicked out the legs of the bipod and then braced the gun up on a flat rock and popped open the sight covers. Shado closed one eye and then put it up to the lens of the scope. Shado scanned the horizon back and forth until he found what he was looking for. Smoak squinted off into the distance, and all he could see was a cloud of dust. He figured that was what Shado was looking at.

"2000 meters and closing," said Shado, "I count about a dozen Death Stalkers, a handful of Beowolfs, and probably the same amount of Taitju and a different number of other Grimm." Shado panned up into the sky and looked. He gulped and then said in a low tone, "And about three Nevermores…"

"Brick, what are we going to do?" said the boys' mother, "That's probably three times as many as we've ever seen before!"

"I don't know if there's much we can do…" said Brick, "But I don't want to have to rebuild again," he said looking down at their little house.

"It won't be the first time," said Smoak with a tone of disdain as he kicked a patch of dirt with the toe of his boot, "And I'm sure it won't be the last." His parents glared at him, and Smoak shrunk from their gazes, "What?" whined he and Smoak went back to staring around at nothing in particular.

"Well it's usually just us fighting," said Brick, looking at his family, "But today we have a bit of a backup," Cole nodded his agreement slowly, and the rest of his team nodded as well.

"Where do you need us?" asked Lilac as she pulled out her weapon.

"I'll leave that up to your leader," said Brick and Cole nodded again, "But wait for us to fire the first shot."

"We'll take up position on the fence and hope to keep them from getting in," said Cole and the rest of his team nodded in response.

"In that case, we'll stay up here and hope to provide support from the ridge," said Sapphire and then she pulled her weapon off her back.

Sapphire and Brick Cardiff were the head of the Cardiff family. The two of them met during their time at the Huntsman Academy in Atlas. Brick had traveled to the Academy from his home in Vacuo, and Sapphire was from Mistral. Brick was head of his team while there, and Sapphire was a member of a different team at the academy, but they were a whole year apart. The two met and fell in love during a collaboration mission between their two teams. Brick, their dad, was a gaunt and very tall man. He had bright red hair and thick, bushy eyebrows. His eyes were small and squinty, probably from all the time spent in the deserts of Vacuo. He had a small, pointy mustache that barely reached the corners of his mouth, which gave him a roguish look. Despite being tall and lanky, with his weapon and long legs, he was often a blur on the battlefield. Their mom often joked that she fell in love with the arrow that sped through her heart.

Brick wore a shirt similar to Smoak's with long sleeves and a high collar, but not as loose and billowy as his son. He wore a tight-fitting, dark vest as well over the shirt and a couple of large ammo belts crossed his chest. The ammo belts didn't go to his weapon, in fact, they weren't even originally his. They belonged to Sapphire's team leader when they were in the academy. Brick had won them from the man when he challenged him to a duel for Sapphire. Brick loved her and wanted to take her away so he could marry her, but then so did Sapphire's team leader, but in a sick way. They had a duel to see which one would win Sapphire, and Brick won by a long shot. In fact, Brick thrashed him so bad that the man almost begged Brick to take Sapphire for all the trouble it was causing him and gave him the ammo belts as well as a trophy. Over the whole ensemble, Brick wore an earthy red colored duster that he could almost wrap around his thin frame twice over. He also wore a small brimmed hat and a pair of goggles with orange tinted lenses dangled around his beanpole neck.

Their mom, Sapphire, was much shorter than Brick, and even her two sons who took more after their dad in height. But she made up for it in…other ways. She had a gorgeous face with dark blue eyes, the same color as the stone for which her name was derived. She also had her long, curly hair pulled back into a loose ponytail that trailed down her back. Her hair was a bright blonde, a trait which she seemed to pass on to each of her children. And she was also…very well endowed, a fact that Brick said didn't hurt his reasons for falling in love with her in the first place.

Her outfit consisted of a long, billowy blue dress. The amount of fabric allowed for functionality and movement while in combat, but it also was a great fashion statement. The dress had a high collar that went flush to Sapphire's neck and the dress was fastened tightly by the strings the crisscrossed across the front of the dress underneath the bust of the dress. The sleeves went all the way down to her wrists and ended in a bit of thin lace. The entire dress was ringed around the neck, and bottom of the flounce also had decorative lace. The dress was trimmed with fine gold-colored thread and had large, billowy shoulders. The outfit seemed almost out of place in the deserts of Vacuo, but Sapphire didn't care, it was a gift from her parents, and also came lined on the inside with a similar armor system to Lilac's, so it was very valuable.

Underneath the dress, Sapphire wore a pair of almost knee-high dark boots. Attached to the back of the dress was a small pouch for carrying valuables. The only contents in the pouch was the couple's wedding rings and a few other small things that Sapphire kept as reminders. Brick's fingers were too small for most conventional rings, plus he was afraid that with the constant work he did in his workshop that it would become a hazard more than anything. Sapphire kept hers in the pouch as well because her fingers got swollen too much during her children's pregnancies and almost had to have it cut off. To prevent that happening again, she kept it in the pouch. There were also small vials of drugs and herbs used in medicine.

Sapphire's semblance was the ability to instantly heal any injury. However, it didn't quite help with things like colds, despite Smoak wishing otherwise when he was growing up. The drugs and herbs were used in times when her semblance couldn't quite cut it, like when someone did get sick. In fact, Sapphire always said that if she didn't become a Huntsman, that she probably would have ended up being a doctor or nurse in one of the hospitals in Atlas for the military. Their father, Brick's semblance was the ability to turn his spit to acid. It was an odd semblance, but came in handy sometimes because in its diluted form, it often formed the backbone of some of Sapphire's more potent medicines. However, it had caused its share of trouble. In the time that they had been married, the couple had to replace a set of silverware, a couple plates, and several pillows. Brick always swore that he never meant to melt things on purpose, but Smoak knew that wasn't true on at least on point. To this day, Sapphire never knew why a perfectly good meatloaf suddenly and quite violently melted the pan it was in after she walked out of the room, despite her entire family claiming that the dish looked lovely.

Strapped across the front of Sapphire's dress from right shoulder to left hip was the leather strap that led to the sheath of Sapphire's weapon. It was a long broadsword that was thin and jagged in its design. The sword was light, but still had enough weight behind it to cleave the head of a Beowolf clean off with one swing. The sword also collapsed down to a compact and interestingly shaped machine gun that fired small rifle rounds. Sapphire didn't know why she forged her weapon the way she did, she claimed that the idea for it came to her in a dream, and so far it had suited her just fine.

Shado was still laid out flat on the rock, keeping tabs on the oncoming Grimm menace. As the dust cloud got closer, and Smoak could start to see faint outlines of individual monsters, Shado reached into a pouch on his back and drew out a clip of ammunition and loaded it into the gun in preparation. Cole and his team carefully descended the rock face and then hid themselves around the house to try and catch the Grimm off guard. Each of them drew their weapons and pressed themselves deep into whatever cover they could find. Sapphire clicked a button on the bottom of the hilt of her sword and the whole weapon transformed into the machine gun. Brick put his goggles over his eyes and then revved his weapon a couple times to reload the spikes he had spent and then licked the end of each one that was loaded into the firing mechanism on his knuckles. The ends started to glow a bright green as Brick applied some of his acid spit to the spikes. The metal of the spikes was made of a special metal that didn't melt when Brick applied his acid. It was a special blend of metal that came only from the metals found in Vacuo.

Sapphire had asked her husband on several occasions to make her some kitchenware that was made of the stuff so that Brick wouldn't ruin it, but he claimed that it was hard to work the metal into anything larger than a teaspoon. The stuff was tough when compact, but brittle when worked thin. Smoak didn't know how legit that claim was, but he was glad that his dad didn't do it because he found it funny when his mom scolded his dad for melting another fork.

"What do you want me to do?" asked Smoak, eagerly

"Stick to that wall like glue and watch your sister," said Brick without even looking at his son, he was more focused on the dust cloud that was growing on the horizon.

"But-!" complained Smoak

"No! No buts!" said Brick, "Remember what happened the last time you tried to 'help'?!"

Smoak groaned and followed his dad's orders. He didn't want a repeat of the last attack. During the last Grimm attack, Smoak had figured a way to 'help'. Recently Smoak had learned a little lesson in physics with his semblance. That two solid objects couldn't occupy the same space, or one or the other would violently explode when one of them found themselves in the other. Smoak learned that if he stuck his hands into the unshielded part of a Grimm and then became solid, that usually the Grimm would explode. By becoming invisible to get as close as he could, Smoak could get within range then spring his trap. But on one hand, it was a real mess, that is until the Grimm disintegrate, and two, Smoak almost lost his hands to a Grimm that nearly saw him and took a swipe at him. But not only that, he neglected his duty to watch over Sunni. That time, there really was a punishment involved, and Smoak had to do chores for a week which included sweeping out his dad's workshop.

"500 feet…" warned Shado and Brick and Sapphire ducked down so that they wouldn't be seen and Smoak and Sunni both retreated further into the cove out of sight. Sunni then turned up her light so that Smoak and she could both see in the dark.

"Shado," whispered Brick as the horde got closer, "Can you take a shot?"

"Almost," whispered back Shado

"Fire when ready, son," said Brick

"What do I aim for?" asked Shado

"Don't shoot unless you know you're going to kill what you're aiming at," cautioned Brick, "We want it dead, not pissed off."

It hadn't been that long since Shado had received his weapons, Lightbane and Dusk, and its rifle form, Moonsight. And so he wasn't so practiced with it. Their parents had given it to Shado just after his recent birthday. Smoak was jealous because of his brother's gift, but only up until Shado started training with his parents to use them. Smoak did not envy the kind of things that Shado had to do. Sapphire took it upon herself to train Shado in swordplay. A lot of the early training involved meditation and studying sword technique from dusty tomes and scrolls that Sapphire had collected over the years. Smoak was sure that part would have put him to sleep. However recently, the training had jumped out of the books and into real life. Shado and his mom had started to spar daily, and Shado had begun to sport some enormous bruises just from the wooden practice swords they had. But, Shado had taken to it right away and soon both of them had an equal amount of bruises to show. Sapphire was proud of her son's progress and opted to keep many of the bruises instead of healing them so that she could have a reminder.

Brick was training Shado on the flip side, on how to use the rifle form of his weapon. Brick had used the gun briefly before going off to the Academy having been trained to use it by his dad who was the original owner. Brick's training wasn't so academic, to him, the best way to learn how to shoot was to shoot, plain and simple. It didn't whether it was cans and bottles on the fence or smaller animals that happened to scurry by. Everything was a potential target, and Brick never missed an opportunity to teach his son how to shoot his new rifle. But Shado got nervous whenever it came to firing the gun. A lot of the training was loud and involved a lot of mumbled curse words on both Shado and his dad's part who was acting as Shado's spotter while they practiced shooting things. Shado was excellent when it came to close shots, but the further downrange a target was, the more likely Shado was to miss.

Frustrated and exhausted, the father and son finally consulted a book and learned about a little thing called gravity and the wind. They learned that just because a gunshot was traveling close to a zillion miles per hour didn't mean that it wasn't affected by things like gravity and also that it could be blown off course by a blustery wind. Brick then picked up on those concepts right away, having realized his problems and lack of patience to learn how to use the rifle while he was growing up, thus leading to him making his weapon instead while in the Academy. Shado, however, was still having trouble grasping the concept of having to use the other lines in his scope to try and adjust for his shots. It was only recently that he had gotten the hang of it and was able to do it for himself without the aid of a dedicated spotter.

"You got this, I have faith in you," said Brick.

Shado nodded his head and then focused on his sight again. Smoak warned Sunni to plug her ears; then he did the same. Shado's rifle was probably one of the loudest weapons that Smoak had ever heard, and up on the ridge, and squatting in the cove where every sound would reverberate would probably be bad for one's eardrums if they were left unprotected. Shado eyed up a large Ursa and aimed right between the eyes. Shado began to lead the Ursa as it bumbled along in the midst of the group of Grimm. Adjusting to drop and the wind, Smoak inhaled and held his breath to steady himself, and then squeezed the trigger until he heard a report. The bullet went whizzing out the end of the barrel and hit true with its mark.

The bullet carved a path right through the Ursa's skull, and then out the other side before the sound of the shot even rang out. The sound echoed off the rocks surrounding them and throughout the surrounding valley. The repetition made it hard for anyone to pinpoint exactly where the sound was coming from, which was good for Shado. The Ursa stopped in its tracks and toppled over lifeless on the ground. Some of the other Grimm looked around to see what happened, but before many of them had even realized what happened, Shado had already cycled to the next shot and fired at his next target. The Creep he was aiming at dropped without another sound. Brick gave a silent cheer and pumped his fist as he realized that his son was two for two already.

The remaining Grimm stopped where they were about 30 yards from the fence and started looking around for where the shots where coming from. Many stooped down to smell the ground and others sniffed the air. The Nevermore began to circle and search from the air. Shado faded from view as he went invisible to hide where he was laying prone on the top of the ridge. Brick and Sapphire scooted into the cove where Sunni and Smoak were hiding. Smoak knew that it wasn't going to be long until the Grimm caught on and found either them or Team CORL. Shado pulled back the bolt on the rifle quietly and cycled another bullet into the chamber. He closed the bolt with a short click and then aimed at another Grimm.

"I'll probably only get one more shot before they find where we are," hissed Shado over his shoulder

"That's fine, how many more do you have?" asked Brick

"Three, including the one I have in the chamber right now," said Shado

"No, I meant the Gri…Well, make them count," stamered Brick

Shado slowly nodded and aimed at the head of a Beowolf. The creature was staring around aimlessly, and so the shot was an easy one. Shado put the Grimm's face right in-between the aiming reticules on his scope and pulled the trigger. The Beowolf's head opened like a dropped melon, and its body bounced as it reacted to no longer having a cranium. The shot rang clear through the valley, but also gave away their position. Shado gulped as all eyes swiveled to face his direction. They couldn't see him, but he knew that many of them could smell him.

"Have they started attacking yet?" said Brick

"Not yet… But I'm pretty sure they know I'm here…" hissed Shado

"What are they doing?" asked Brick

"Looking for a way up mostly," said Shado. It was true, many of the smaller Grimm were looking for a way up the steep rock face. Many of the larger ones had started sniffing around the perimeter of the house. And the Nevermore was continuing to circle.

"Can you get another shot off?" asked Brick

"I can't aim well enough, I'm moving too much…" said Shado through shaky teeth. He was afraid his jaw would give them away.

"Take your best shot, remember to breathe!" said Brick

Shado sighed and slowed his breathing until he could feel his heart rate slow as well. Forcing more air into his lungs, he held his breath and aimed for a Taitju that was sniffing too close to where Lilac was hiding. Squeezing the trigger one more time, Shado shot at the giant snake. But in his anxious state, he missed, and the shot ran to the left of the snake's head, taking out a chunk of its head, but not killing it. The Taitju hissed and writhed in pain and all the Grimm looked over to see what happened. As they did so, the light reflected off Lilac's armor just right so that the Nevermore overhead saw her. They screeched a warning, and all the Grimm discovered her location. Shado fumbled with the bolt on his gun and finally cycled in another round and then aimed and put the Taitju out of its misery.

"Attack!" said Cole, rising out of his hiding spot. He drew his knife and stabbed it right into the head of a Beowolf nearby. The creature crumpled with a whine.

Everyone sprang into action. Brick and Sapphire lunged out of the cove and began aiming at anything that moved. The first few shots out of Brick's weapon made true, and they slowly started eating away whatever it could find. The Grimm affected began to whelp and squirm as the acid ate away at their flesh. But the substance worked fast, and soon all that was left of those Grimm was a muddy green puddle. Lilac drew her pistols and started unloading as quickly as she could while avoiding attacks from the Grimm nearby. Roy provided backup from near the windmill by floating overhead with his semblance. Each shot rocked his body, and he bobbed around as he cocked the lever back on his rifle, and until he could get another clear shot. Cole ran around like a madman reaching and stabbing at anything he could get his hands on. Anything he couldn't stick he quickly shot full of holes with his revolver, breezing through at least four cylinders of bullets in a few minutes. The Grimm seemed scared of him and started to fall back under his massive attack. In response, a couple of Boarbatusks wound up and set their sights on Cole.

"Watch out!" said Sapphire, who was in the middle of reloading.

Cole turned to see the creatures let loose in his direction. He dove out of the way just in time but then Brick shouted out again, "The house! Protect the home!"

Everyone swiveled to see the Boarbatusks continuing onward on their path towards the house. If they were to hit the house, it would probably level it in one blow.

"I'm on it!" said Olive. Diving in front of the house, Olive held up her weapon in front of her to protect herself

"Olive, no!" said Smoak, poking his head out of the cove. Smoak winced and looked away, unsure of what might happen next. But Olive was confident she had the situation under control. She braced herself and then sunk low to the ground to give her more power.

"Batter up!" grunted Olive, swinging at the Grimm with her maces. With a couple hits, she sent the Boarbatusks flying into the air. The creatures squealed and squirmed as they tried to right themselves in the air.

"Pull!" joked Shado and he aimed at the flying monsters and shot them in rapid succession. Each one died on impact with Shado's bullets.

However, Shado's last shot whizzed a little too close to a Nevermore, at least too close for the Nevermore's liking. Smoak could tell because now the Nevermore stopped circling and set its sights on Shado and his parents. Its first attack was a flurry of feathers aimed at the cliff face. Many of the feathers glanced off the hard rock and tumbled to the ground without further incident. Some were able to find cracks in the rock and embed themselves in. Others came streaming right at Smoak and their parents. Brick noticed and turned his weapon towards the fast approaching projectiles. Using his weapon, he fired a few well-placed bolts at the feathers that split them in two. The bolt continued all the way up the feather's shaft, counter-acting the feather's momentum and rendering them useless as they fluttered to the earth.

When the feathers didn't work, the Nevermore changed tactics. The next attack was a high screech that pierced the air and made everyone's ears ring. Everyone stopped what they were doing to cover their ears and cower from the auditory assault. It took every ounce of willpower for everyone to cover their ears but still fight to avoid being overwhelmed by the Grimm that were unaffected by the sound. The screech didn't last long, but it cost Team CORL some ground on protecting the house as they fell back to avoid becoming Grimm bait. Everyone was worried what the Nevermore would do next. Each Grimm had a limited amount of attack options, and as soon as one was foiled, they adapted and switched tactics until they either were successful, or were killed themselves. Many of the older Grimm bore the scars and marks of those hard-learned lessons. This Nevermore looked like it had seen some attacks in its day. It was much bigger than the other Grimm, and more heavily plated in bony armor. A deep gash ran from corner to corner of its face and across part of its beak.

The Nevermore hovered for a second and saw Brick and Sapphire still firing away on top of the cliff face. The wheels in its head were obviously at work as it thought of what to do about the small pests. None of its other attacks had worked thus far, and so there was really only one option left. Gathering wind beneath its wings, the Nevermore pointed itself right at Sapphire and Brick, talons open. Smoak gasped and made to warn his parents, but Sunni was faster. Instead of verbally warning them, she darted from cover and stood, arms wide open as the Nevermore swooped towards them. Sunni glowed brightly and then let off a flash like a photo bulb. Everyone who was looking at Sunni was suddenly blinded, which was all about Smoak and the Nevermore. Dazed, the Nevermore crashed into the cliff and the entire rock structure shook wildly at the impact. Shado was okay because he was lying on his belly, and Brick and Sapphire were a little shaken but otherwise fine. Smoak shouted as he was flung around the small cove, but was still fine. Sunni however, wasn't ready and went tumbling headfirst off the cliff to the ground below.

"Sunni!" shouted Sapphire as she tried to grasp at her daughter.

Sunni fell just out of grasp of her mother's reaching hand and continued to fall. Sapphire let loose a scream that no one ever wants to hear. Unable to do anything, she sunk to her knees with a look of pure horror. Smoak didn't hesitate. Regaining his composure, he vaulted from the cove and leaped right over his mother and into the abyss. Sapphire gasped as she watched another one of her children dive off the cliff.

"Smoak! What do you think you're doing?!" she shouted as she watched the blonde twin plummet to his death.

"I have no clue, but I need to save Sunni!" shouted Smoak as he sunk out of sight.

Smoak went into free fall and dove after Sunni. Sunni was flailing and screaming as she fell. Smoak streamlined himself and caught up to his sister in no time. Sunni gasped as her brother wrapped his arms around her and she looked up at her brother who looked back with a devilish grin and a wink.

"What are you doing?" Sunni shouted over the wind

"Saving your life!" said Smoak

"Well…who's going to save you?!" shouted Sunni. Smoak looked down at the fast-approaching ground, and Sunni was right, the two of them were about to crash into the ground, and Smoak had no way of stopping their free fall.

Smoak panicked slightly, unsure of what to do. His semblance did him no good here, unless he wanted to go invisible so no one could see what became of him once he hit the ground. Even going intangible would be pointless because they wanted to stop when they reached the ground, not continue on through it and into the earth. Smoak looked at his sister, she looked scared and Smoak hugged her close so that she wouldn't be able to see the exact moment it happened. Smoak closed his eyes as well and braced for the sudden stop he had always heard of. Smoak joked in his head that he knew that he would always come to a sudden stop in his life, but he never thought it would be like this. The ground was dangerously close when Smoak suddenly felt a pair of hands grab around him and jerk up. Smoak opened his eyes to see Roy clutching him and Sunni. Roy grunted as he pulled upwards, trying to slow their descent. Roy quickly changed his density to near weight-less and pulled up in an attempt to slow the falling brother and sister. And it actually started to work. Roy's semblance counter-acted the effects of gravity enough to where Smoak and Sunni were no longer free-falling.

"I got you!" grunted Roy, pulling up even more and changing his density. The trio slowed to a crawl and then to a stop just inches above the ground. Smoak let out a major sigh once he saw how close they were to impact and how unforgiving the ground looked from his vantage point of being upside down in Roy's arms.

Roy slowly restored his density and laid his feet on the ground. He then gently let go of Smoak who crumpled to the ground in a heap. Smoak laid there for a second, stunned, and then let go of Sunni. Smoak got to his feet and then helped his sister up. The three of them stood there for a second or two, breathing and gasping deeply. Smoak and Sunni in shock over surviving an impossible fall, and Roy for physically exerting himself like that. Smoak smiled at his sister who beamed back, both figuratively and literally. Smoak thought to himself that he was glad Roy was here, he shuttered to think of what would have happened if the officer wasn't around to save him and his sister. And even if he didn't think it, there was definitely something watching over the blonde twin since that had to at least been the sixth time that Smoak had cheated death that day alone.

Because at that moment, a large Ursa appeared, growling and bellowing at the top of its lungs. Roy gasped in surprise and Sunni screamed. Even Smoak screamed in a less than dignified manner at the sudden appearance of the towering monster. Roy put his arm out to shield Smoak and Sunni, and he went to draw his sword. The Ursa beat him to it however, swiping at him and knocking him away. Roy flew away and hit the rock wall and was knocked unconscious. He slumped to the ground with a groan and laid there almost lifeless. Smoak gulped as he looked up at the Ursa. The thing towered well over the blonde twin and was definitely larger too. Smoak stepped in front of Sunni to act as a shield and hoped that the Grimm hadn't seen them yet. But no such luck, the Ursa started swiping at them. But the blows weren't as directed as Smoak anticipated them to be. It was almost as if they were random, as if the creature couldn't quite see what it was aiming for.

Smoak pulled Sunni down to avoid a large paw swipe and the blow hit the rocks behind them. Rocks and small debris rained down on them as they cowered under the Ursa. Sunni screamed and Smoak protected her from the larger rock shards that were sheared off the mountainside. Smoak didn't understand, given that the Ursa was usually a deadly predator, they should have definitely been dead by now. One blow would have definitely been enough to do them in. But it was like the Ursa was toying with them, and Smoak had never seen a Grimm toy with its prey before. Looking up, Smoak found his answer immediately. The face of the Grimm was one of pure pain, and Smoak saw why. The Ursa's eyes, while usually bright red, were a muddy green color, and a small spike was sticking out of the Ursa's head not too far off from its eyes. Smoak understood completely. His dad had shot this one with one of his acid spikes, but there wasn't quite enough acid on it to turn the Ursa to a green puddle, so all it really accomplished was turning the Ursa blind and put it into a rage.

Smoak felt bad for the creature, but he knew that given the chance, the Ursa would have ended him then and there, so he didn't feel bad for long. Smoak pulled Sunni along the cliff face to avoid another flurry of blows from the blinded Ursa. There was more rocks and debris rained down on them as they tried to get away. A large rock sheared off the cliff and fell in their way, blocking their escape. Smoak backpedaled and tried going the other way, but the Ursa threw a large blow in that direction. Smoak and Sunni stood trapped, gasping and scared out of their wits.

"Sunni, don't make too much noise…" hissed Smoak to his sister

"Smoak…" said Sunni

"I think if we don't make too much noise, the Ursa might leave…"

"Smoak…" repeated Sunni

"What? What is it?" asked Smoak.

"I- I- I havta sneeze!" said Sunni, flapping her hands around, trying to suppress the sneeze. The dirt and dust that the Ursa had been kicking up had irritated her nose enough that she needed to sneeze. She looked panicked, and so did Smoak. Sunni tried her best to keep it in, but Smoak knew it was coming.

"Sunni…" whined Smoak, "Please don't…" he forced through clenched teeth.

Sunni wound up for a sneeze and Smoak reached out to try and cover her mouth and nose to muffle the sound. But he didn't make it in time and Sunni let out a massive sneeze. The sound echoed around them, drawing the attention of the Ursa. Smoak screamed again, and Sunni cowered at Smoak's feet. Not sure of what to do, Smoak did the only thing he could think of at a time like that. Smoak pictured his hands intangible, and suddenly they were. Time seemed to slow as Smoak rushed forward to cut the distance between him and the Ursa and plunged his hands into the Ursa's chest. Smoak could feel the Ursa's body envelope him as he entered the creature's chest. Smoak then pictured his hands becoming solid. The Ursa was shocked by the feeling of suddenly having something open its chest that it started flailing around wildly. One of the blows caught Smoak on the side of his face and Smoak groaned as he felt his skin flayed open and warm blood started dripping down his face.

It took a second for the laws of physics to register what happened, but the world soon righted itself, and Smoak's presence in the Ursa caused the creature to rip itself quickly apart, blowing it to bits. Smoak then collapsed to the ground in pain. He didn't know what was worse, the pain in his face, or the sudden appearance of pain in his hands. Smoak writhed and screamed as pain radiated through his body. Curling up, Smoak rocked back and forth, cradling his hands between his legs to try and ride through the pain. When the pain subsided slightly, Smoak opened the one eye that he could and looked at his hands. He was lucky they were still there. His hands were bloody and raw, and in parts, there was skin missing to where all he could see was all the way down to the bone. Smoak screamed in more pain and horror. The pain returned, and Smoak doubled up again on the ground. Smoak thought he was going to pass out from the pain.

Apparently the Ursa was harder than it looked, and put a fight with Smoak's hands when he plunged them into its chest. But Smoak won out in the end, but not before taking some collateral damage in the process. He was lucky not to be ripped apart himself after a stunt like that. But Smoak wasn't thinking about that at that moment, he was only thinking of the only way to end his pain. Having come close to being ripped apart bit by bit was painful, and Smoak was feeling all of it right at that moment. He writhed around trying to find a position that would alleviate his pain even the slightest bit. There were shouts and a lot of gunfire, and then it all stopped. Running feet, shouting voices, Smoak almost didn't notice when a series of hands grabbed at him and forced him to stop moving.

"He's hurt!"

"Look at his hands, his face!"

"Hold him down!"

"He's going to hurt himself!"

"Sorry, this is going to sting a bit!"

Smoak felt a tingle and then the pain in his hands started to fade, but not before another wave of pain rushed through his body. Smoak fought his captors to sit up and then he emptied his stomach at the feet of his mother. Smoak blinked through the blood on his face and looked up at his mother. Her hair was a disheveled mess around her head, and she looked like she had been crying. She took a step back to avoid stepping in the pool of sick, and then continued her job of trying to heal Smoak's hands. Smoak sat on the ground panting and gasping. His mouth tasted of bile mixed with blood, and it certainly didn't feel good. Smoak wound up and spat on the sand to try and remove it from his mouth. Team CORL were trying their best to keep Smoak down, but he had fought them off to sit up.

"G'eoff me!" struggled Smoak.

Team CORL let go of Smoak, and he shrugged off any attempts for people to talk to him or ask him how he was. Smoak looked down at his hands. They were no longer bloody, and the skin was starting to grow back under the careful guidance of his mother's semblance. Smoak figured he was going to be lucky if they didn't scar, and he knew that his hands were never going to be the same either. The pain was slowly disappearing, but they tingled and itched like crazy as the skin grew back. The pain was reduced to a dull throb, which brought back the realization of the larger wound he had, and that he was dripping blood off his face. Once his hands were healed, he gingerly reached a hand up to his face to feel. The gash went from the top of his right eye just under his hairline, and then down past the eye and stopped just short of his upper lip. The gash was wide too, probably about the width of his thumb almost all the way down. Smoak cringed as he brushed the ragged edges of the wound and he drew back his hand.

"Are you okay?" asked Olive

"I- I'm fine" stammered Smoak. He knew that no matter how good his mom was at healing wounds, this one was almost guaranteed to scar over.

"You won't be okay if I don't close this wound before you bleed out," said Sapphire through a lump in her throat.

"Yeah, got it," said Smoak bluntly

"Is that it?" asked Sapphire, "You're not going to say anything else?" Sapphire seemed to be angry at more than Smoak's comment. Smoak didn't know what to say.

"Yeah, that's it, now can we get on with this?" That wasn't it.

Sapphire's face contorted with rage, but she reached out anyway and used her semblance to heal Smoak's face. He could start to feel the skin knit back together, the blood flow stop, and the pain subside. Once healed, Smoak felt his face to see what happened. A thick, gnarly scar met his touch that ran almost the entire length of the original wound. There was still a layer of his blood caked on his face, and the scar twitched slightly from pain. Smoak wished he had a mirror, but that was going to have to wait. Out of the blue, Smoak felt a sharp pain in his cheek as his mother slapped him across the face.

"Mom!" gasped the Cardiff kids, especially Smoak.

"Sapphire!" remarked Brick, who was standing behind his wife, but she shot her husband a look that caused him to back off.

"You don't even give a thought of what I was going through, what I'm still going through!?" screech Sapphire through tears, "I thought you two were dead!" she said pointing to Smoak and Sunni. Sunni was still sat on the ground not too far from Smoak. She had a look of disappointment on her face.

"I- I'm sorry?" tried Smoak

"Sorry?!" Smoak recoiled at the volume of his mother's voice, "You almost die and all you have to say is sorry?! And what about running off earlier when I explicitly told you not to today!"

"Mom, are we going to do this now?" said Smoak, hoping to avoid a lecture.

"Y'er darn right we're doing this right now! If we don't Smoak, when will we? Huh? When you call us from jail, or better, when you're dead?! Huh!? How can we talk to you then?"

"Mom…" said Smoak

"No! We're doing this now!"

Sapphire was one of the nicest people you'd ever meet, but that didn't mean she was a pushover, especially when it came to things like her family. Sapphire Cardiff was known to fight tooth and nail to defend her children, but she and Brick had become increasingly less and less satisfied by one of their children's decisions. Smoak knew exactly who that was, and where this argument was going. While his parents still loved Smoak, they knew that if they didn't do something soon, that Smoak could end up in a lot of trouble, real trouble, the kind that either requires bail money or a funeral. So far they had been lenient and let him do what he wanted because there wasn't much they could do. He was almost legally an adult, which meant that whatever he did at this point could have negative repercussion to the fact. Vacuo wasn't above-charging criminals as adults when they were close, which carried heavier punishments with it.

"What were you thinking this morning?!"

"I- I…was not," stammered Smoak

"And when I tried to get ahold of you, you what? Thought you could ignore me?!" said Sapphire, pulling out her scroll. The small touchscreen device quietly whirred open, and Smoak could see the call log, at least, eighteen calls to his scroll and at least that many messages as well.

"What did you think was so important that you'd risk your life for?"

"Um…" hemmed Smoak

"Well?!" demanded Sapphire, "I'm waiting for an answer!"

"Uh…mo…" mumbled Smoak

"What?"

"M- Money…" said Smoak, barely audible.

Sapphire lost it, "You skipped out for some money?! What was the job?" Smoak would, on occasion, to get in his parents good books, leave to find some honest work. He wasn't bad with his hands, and could easily find construction work in any of the growing frontier towns that were cropping up around them. He would always return, a least a couple of days later, pockets full of lien and an apology for leaving on such short notice. Most of the money was honestly earned, some of it, not so much.

"And if it was such a simple job, why on earth did Cole, and the rest of them have to drag your sorry rear end back here, as they were arresting you?!"

"Th- they were arresting us," conceded Smoak

"Oh! So what was it this time?!" said Sapphire, "Because let me say, if they've had it, I can guarantee you, I've had it too Smoak!"

Smoak shrunk when he thought about answering his mother. He knew he couldn't answer that question, if she knew that he was off scamming people, he would probably have been better off dying at the hands of that Ursa. But Sapphire continued,

"Can you imagine what were to happen if you left and never came back because you either got arrested or because you got killed?! What would your sister think?!" Smoak sunk even further at the mention of his sister. He had thought about it before, the look on her face when she was genuinely hurt was more than he could bear. He couldn't imagine it if he was the cause of that.

"And if the both of you had died today, what about that huh? Did you think about that before you went diving off that cliff?!" Smoak couldn't handle this pressure anymore. He broke down into small sobs and tried to stop himself from getting any louder with them.

"Well…I- I- saved her!" said Smoak through pitiful sobs

"Oh please, Roy saved the both of you!" said Sapphire, "And had he not been here, I wouldn't be administering first aid for a facial wound, I'd be picking bits of you and your sister from the sand!"

Smoak felt a mixture of sadness and anger rise in his chest, and the anger continued to well up, "Enough is enough Smoak, and you need to start thinking about your actions. You need to understand that your actions have more of an effect on just yourself. Your decisions will affect each and every one of us here, and if this keeps up, it may also affect your future standing with the state and the state of this family."

Smoak had heard enough, "Is being alive not enough for you!?" retorted Smoak

"Excuse me?" said Sapphire

"You said it yourself, I could be dead, but I'm still here, and because of that, it's not 'Oh! Thank goodness you're alive!' It's 'You done screwed up kid, and if you keep it up, you're gonna get yourself in a heap of trouble that we'll all be screwed!'" Sapphire looked furious that Smoak was talking back.

"And what about it?!" screeched Sapphire, "If this does keep up, we'll all be screwed! There! I said it! Happy? Think about what that could mean for your father and me as Huntsman or your sister!" Smoak cringed in anger when he heard his mom mention his sister as leverage again.

"Or what about Olive?!" Smoak stopped dead in his tracks, "What would she do without you? I seriously think she could do better than your sorry a-"

"Sapphire!" cautioned Brick

"But while I think being promised to her is the best thing that has ever happened, I still believe that she's wasting her time on you!"

Smoak looked down at Olive's hand. On it was a simple wooden ring. Smoak had made that ring himself and given it to her recently as a promise. Smoak had found an old book in his mother's library about ancient dating practices and courtship and found a section on promise rings. According to the book, if two people liked each other, but weren't able to at that time get married, the man could give the girl a promise ring. The ring symbolized the man's promise to propose and get married to her when they could. Smoak had known Olive most his life, having grown up near her family most his life. Even before they were teenagers, Smoak had a crush on her. Soon after his sixteenth birthday, Smoak found out that Olive felt the same way. Soon the two started dating, and then Smoak gave her the promise ring. But in recent months, the amount of shenanigans that Smoak had pulled was beginning to put a strain on their relationship as her team was involved in getting them out of the majority of those situations. Olive had threatened to leave Smoak, and for a while, it worked, until now. Smoak ground his teeth in frustration, Sapphire knew she hit a nerve, but didn't care.

"So, are you going to start thinking about your actions?" said Sapphire

Smoak fumed and finally he couldn't stand it anymore. He stood up, brushed the dirt off his vest, and then marched in the direction of the house.

"Smoak Michael Cardiff!" shouted Sapphire, using Smoak's full name. Smoak turned around and shouted as he continued to walk backward.

"I'll think about it!"


	4. Chapter 3- Update

Hey, everyone! Just a few quick things! I recently found a neat online tool that allows you to create anime avatars. So using that, I created visuals for each of the main characters in my story. (Mostly just Team SSAO to start, others to follow!) I posted them all on Deviantart, so surf on over there and take a look at them! Just search for Magicianhayd. There you'll also find that visual I promised forever ago for Orchid's spear, Phantom Strike.

Also for those of you who have been following the story so far, I have posted an updated info chapter (Ch 0- 'Info') and re-did a bit of the first chapter (Ch 1- Magic...) If you have read those updates before 2/1/2016, then you're caught up and fine. If you haven't read the updates before the above date, I highly encourage you to! They weren't huge changes, but they helped to introduce a couple of new characters, change some character info, and fixed some problems I was having. In the story, I worked to fill a couple of plot holes, and, of course, fix my atrocious grammar, (thank you Grammarly!)

And as always, stay tuned for another chapter coming out shortly (I promise, if not today, then tomorrow for sure!) and please review to tell me what's up and what I might be able to change if you have any constructive feedback. And be sure to like/follow so you never miss a single update. Thanks again!

-Assassinhayd


	5. Chapter 4- Giving Chase

Hey, guys! I said I'd get this to you by the end of the day. And depending on where you are in the world, this might be the end of the day for you as well. So, enjoy! This one is just a tiny bit shorter than the other chapters. Which may be a good thing, I don't know. Let me know what you think by either PM me or reviewing. Do you guys like long chapters? Or would you prefer me to keep them short? I hope to get the next chapter out in a couple weeks (or so depending on my schedule). So for now, just hit that like/subscribe button and be sure to leave a review as well so that I know what you guys think.

I am also open to character suggestions. I've already had one person send me one. It's not that I don't have characters to work with. (Literally I have hundreds) It's just that I like to leave this open to the readers to give some input. Just as a friendly reminder, if you do send me a character suggestion, make sure they follow Monty's color naming rule (if you don't know what that is, look it up, it's important!) I have tried my best to stick to it for my characters (Ashley was a bit of a stretch, but I think I made it work) and teams (again, I think I stretched that with SSAO).

Also, as a community service, I am compiling a whole list of names that fit to the rules (being a color, meaning a color, making you think of a color, etc.) I hope to have that out before the next chapter and I'll post it somewhere where everyone can find it.

* * *

Ch. 3- Giving Chase

"Oh crap…" said Smoak, "That doesn't usually happen when I go through the tree cleanly!" he mumbled to himself. Smoak turned to look at the splintered remains of the tree that Yang punched. He shook a few of the shards out of his medium, dirty-blonde hair and tried to appear inconspicuous by crouching back down behind what was left of the tree. But apparently Yang and Ruby could see the blonde twin. Ruby even cleared her throat to get Smoak's attention. Smoak looked up and noticed the two sisters looking right at him. Smoak laughed and started to make faces at the two of them. All that did was further enrage the already pissed off Yang.

Smoak's face fell, "You guys can see me?"

"Uh-huh!" grunted Yang through her heavy breathing.

"Clear as day there," said Ruby. Yang looked ready to snap Smoak in half. Smoak gave a short whistle that started low and built up to a high pitch. Ruby heard Shado whistle back the opposite of Smoak's whistle, one that started high and ended low.

"Bad timing!" shouted Smoak to the air and Ruby heard Shado reply nearby, but she couldn't see him

"Sorry!"

"Hey, look," chuckled Smoak getting defensive, "This was all…just a…just a joke! Y'know a big misunderstanding!" Yang looked like she didn't feel the same way. She took a wild swing at Smoak, and he barely ducked away from Yang's punch. Instead, Yang's fist contacted with another tree, and it exploded like the first one. Smoak almost swore, and he rolled out of the way of the flying shrapnel. Once on his feet again, Smoak turned and tried to distance himself from Yang.

"Look, I'm sure we can talk this out!" said Smoak, dodging more wild jabs.

Ruby heard Yang grunt something about a snowball and his chances and figured she didn't want to listen to the rest of the argument. Smoak was quickly ducking and dodging Yang's attacks, which was doing nothing more than infuriating her, but also wearing her out. However, Smoak didn't notice that he was being backed into a corner. Smoak quickly ran out of room between him and Yang as he backed into the trunk of another large tree. Smoak gulped and looked at Yang, who was winding up for a blow that would probably take Smoak's block clean off. Smoak quickly pursed his lips and let out a sharp whistle; Yang continued to wind up, her face contorted in rage and a yell gathering.

Shado whistled back the same sharp whistle quickly, and Smoak grinned. Ruby didn't know what was going on, but she was getting tired of the whistling. Smoak regained his composure and backed the rest of the way up against the tree so that his back was flat against it. As he leaned up against the tree, he crossed his arms and placed one of his feet up against the tree so that it was flat against the bark and his knee was bent to accommodate the pose. The pose just oozed confidence, and Yang couldn't handle it anymore. She finished winding up and was ready to release onto any part of Smoak she could reach.

"Any last words?" asked Ruby, in a half joking, half serious tone. Smoak just laughed and said,

"Yeah…boo!" and as soon as he said that, he pushed up on the foot that was touching the tree and launched off in the direction of Yang.

Yang gasped at the sudden move and swung at the blonde's head. Yang's hand was about to make contact with Smoak's cheek when the blonde twin turned slightly transparent. Yang's fist reached Smoak's cheek and phased right through his entire head. Yang stumbled as she tried to recover from her swing and Smoak slipped right by. He then darted towards Ruby, who tried her best to stop him. She held her hands out and was ready to shoot to one side or the other in case he decided to juke left or right. Smoak just laughed and continued straight. Ruby stood her ground and was ready to take on Smoak in case he decided to fight now instead. Smoak kept his stride, and then jumped and curled into a ball as he sailed through the air; then the blonde zipped right _through_ Ruby. Ruby felt weird as she felt Smoak pass right through her. It was like a cold breeze went through her whole body all at once. The blonde materialized on the other side of Ruby and kept on running.

"What?" said Yang in a daze, still trying to recover, "I went right through him?"

"And he went right _through_ me!" said Ruby with a shriek and a shudder as she held her stomach in a panic.

"Where'd he go?!" said Yang, whipping around. The two sisters scanned the area and didn't see anything.

"Looking for something?" said a voice from on top of one of the nearby tents. Yang and Ruby looked up to see Smoak mocking them from the roof of the tent right behind them.

"Whoa!" said Smoak as something whizzed right by his head.

Yang had become even more frustrated due to her inability to fight back with her weapon since it was currently on Smoak's wrists. Unable to think of anything else, she had picked up a fistful of rock off the ground and was starting to throw them at Smoak. Smoak dodged the first few ones but then stood still as Yang began to dial in her aim. One of the last stones was aimed directly for Smoak's forehead, but when it looked like the projectile was going to hit its target, the rock sailed right through Smoak's head and out the back with no further incident. Ruby didn't know whether to be scared or surprised at what happened, but Smoak was almost dying of laughter.

"The name didn't give it away?" said Smoak holding up one of his gloved hands. The blonde twin held up his other hand and then passed it right through the first without any hindrance. He wiggled his fingers and then danced his hand back and forth inside his other side just to show off, "Smoak my name, and smoke the gas? C'mon! Please tell me you saw this coming!" he pleaded with an air of boasting.

"SMOAK!" screamed Yang, and she launched herself in the direction of the tent.

Raising her fist up, Yang punched the pole that was holding the back of the tent up. Even without her weapon, Ruby knew that her sister's punches were deadly, as she had already demonstrated. So when her fist made contact with one of the structural poles of the tent, Ruby heard it gave way with a high snap that sounded like she shattered it into many tiny pieces, and the tent started to buckle under its weight. Smoak stumbled a bit but at the last second, nimbly jumped from the tent's roof to the ground and rolled to break his fall. He then slipped into the crowd and tried to get away. But his combined height and blonde hair made him stick out like a sore thumb. There was some complaining from the owners of the tent as their entire structure came down on them. Ruby could hear their muffled cries and shouts from under the cloth of the tent. Yang was practically fuming, and she took off like a rocket in the direction that Smoak went. There were more cries as Yang went right over the collapsed tent and she stepped on the owners.

"Sorry!" apologized Ruby as she sidestepped the tent, "But there's a bounty hunter that stole our things!"

Ruby's first thought was to call backup, but when she reached to find her scroll, she found the pouch empty. She patted around her person to try and find the device but couldn't locate it. She even looked around on the ground and still couldn't locate it. She could have sworn she had it just a few moments ago. Then it hit Ruby; she probably didn't have it because of a certain blonde bounty hunter. There was no telling what Smoak did as he wisped through her just a moment ago. There was a large crashing noise; Ruby grimaced as she heard it and because she was pretty sure she knew where it was coming from. If backup were to come, Ruby would just have to hope they could hear them, and follow the sounds of general destruction. Ruby rushed to keep up with her sister. She thought she lost Yang a couple of times, but all she had to do was follow the crashing sounds and then look for a blonde chasing a blonde. Yang was fast, but Smoak was quick and was able to keep ahead of her, but just barely. Smoak was trying to weave back and forth but every time that Yang would catch up, she would attempt to take a swing at him.

"Give us our stuff back!" roared Yang.

Ruby wanted to help, but she didn't know what to do. Without her weapon, Ruby was powerless. Her next thought was to use her semblance. But there wasn't enough room on the street to get up to the speed she would need to catch up with Yang and Smoak, and between all the people and things in the way, she would only cause more trouble as things got swept along by her semblance's power at that speed. But Ruby didn't know how long the fight would go on without causing permanent damage to something, or someone. Yang chased Smoak down the street and to a point where the road split to a T. Smoak glanced over his shoulder to see where Yang was, and it almost looked like he and Yang were about to run headlong into the storefront at the end of the block.

"Look out!" warned Ruby.

Smoak looked forward and didn't break his pace. Instead, there was a large grin on Smoak's face. Ruby thought he was crazy; it looked like he wanted to hit the wall. Ruby then gasped, it wasn't that he wanted to hit the wall, he was probably planning on phasing right through it. Ruby thought they were going to lose him again if he decided to go through the storefront and out the other side. But, at the last moment, Smoak twisted and started running up the wall. He got a few steps up when gravity took over again, and he deftly flipped off the wall and over Yang's head. Yang got distracted by Smoak's move and ran right into the wall. She left a nice imprint in the brick and people started to run away from the destruction. Smoak laughed and turned and ran back down the street towards Ruby.

There was a loud whistle from nearby, down one of the alleys, and Ruby looked to see where it came from. She wasn't able to see anything, but Ruby had about enough of the cryptic whistles. Smoak whistled back, and there were a couple of other whistles from nearby on the rooftops. Ruby was determined to stop Smoak this time. There was another whistle from down the alley, and Smoak saw the redhead and gulped. The look on Ruby's face matched her sister's, and she was ready this time. It didn't matter if he wanted to phase through her; she was going to be ready. She got low to the ground to make herself less of a target and braced herself in case Smoak materialized on the other side of her. But instead, Smoak made to juke left, and Ruby was caught off guard. He unstrapped Ruby's scythe from his back and threw it near her as he ran by. Ruby followed the trajectory and saw that if she didn't save her weapon soon, it could potentially slip through a large hole in a nearby storm drain grate. Ruby was torn between catching Smoak and protecting her weapon. Ruby decided on the weapon. She activated her semblance, zoomed over to the grate, and caught Crescent Rose and then turned to see Smoak breeze on by her.

"Happy birthday!" he said as he sailed by.

Ruby was happy to have her weapon finally back after the short absence, "Hey!" said Ruby as she watched Smoak scramble up the road, away from her.

"What about mine?!" said Yang. She had extracted herself from the wall and had caught up to Ruby.

"Wha-? Oh, yeah!" said Ruby. Ruby refocused on Smoak and the blonde turned and looked over his shoulder and ran faster.

The street was empty now, and Ruby didn't feel bad using her semblance, but Ruby stopped to observe what was going on first. Smoak was zig-zagging down the street, making it harder to hit him, and he whistling like crazy. Several pipes came in response. First was one from Orchid, then one from Shado, and finally from Ash. Ruby was about to disregard the blonde's manic whistling, but suddenly something clicked in Ruby's head. She thought back to all the times that Smoak had whistled one way, and then the changes in his expressions when he whistled a different way. Ruby also thought about what Smoak meant earlier about Smoak's comment about 'bad timing.' It took a second or two, but Ruby finally understood what all the whistling was about, and it wasn't just to communicate team locations. Ruby thought quickly and came up with a plan. Switching tactics, Ruby pulled out Crescent Rose and activated the weapon. After fully extending to the scythe mode, she buried the end of the scythe into the pavement with the scythe end facing away from Smoak.

"Um…sis?" said Yang, "Isn't that the wrong way?"

"Nope!" said Ruby with a bit of confidence

Ruby vaulted up onto the handle of the weapon and pulled the trigger. The shot from her weapon launched her tiny frame in the direction of Smoak's retreating rear end. Smoak heard the ringing shot of Crescent Rose and turned to look at the sound. Ruby was quickly gaining on him, and Smoak looked genuinely panicked. The blade part of Ruby's weapon was poised to cut him in half if he wasn't careful, and instead of a whistle, Smoak just hurriedly shouted.

"IS NOW GOOD?!"

"YES!" shouted Shado from nearby. That is exactly what Ruby wanted.

Ruby witnessed as Smoak crossed his arms in front of himself to try and shield himself, and clenched his eyes shut, strained, and turned slightly transparent as her blade sailed cleanly through the blonde's upper torso, without harm. Technically, Ruby had missed, but that didn't bother the redhead. Shifting her weight on the handle ever so slightly, Ruby pulled so that her trajectory changed slightly. Ruby pointed her weapon in the direction of where Shado's voice came from and pulled the trigger a second time. Ruby shot off in a new direction and watched as her indiscriminate attack whizzed towards the opening of a nearby alley. There was a gasp, and Shado materialized out of thin air and dove out of the way of Ruby's shot. The redhead continued, crashing into a building and embedding the end of her weapon in the side of it. But all of that didn't matter, she had finally made a breakthrough.

"Shado has the same powers as Smoak!" she shouted to Yang, who stood there dumbfounded at how Ruby was able to locate Shado with ease, "But they can't use them at the same time!" she finished her conclusion.

"What?!" said Yang

"Trust me! If we attack at the same time, they won't be able to handle it!" said Ruby.

Smoak sat up and looked around for Shado. He was panicked that Ruby had been able to figure them out so fast. Shado groaned and dug himself out of the pile of rubble he was buried in. Ruby was trying to extract her weapon from the wall, and Yang was struggling to jog up the road to join her after having chased Smoak for what felt like blocks. Shado looked up at Smoak, and they nodded to each other, knowingly. Almost as if on cue, the twins took out a pair of earbuds and plugged them into their ears. They then took out matching music players and switched on some music. Then, it was as if the two changed, the scared looks on their faces disappeared and instead were replaced with ones of determination.

"Playlist number thirty-four! And playlist number twenty-two!" said Smoak pointing to Ruby and Yang respectively.

"I think that's what I've gathered so far!" Smoak shouted at his brother.

"You think?!" said Shado

"Umm…eighty-five percent?" faltered Smoak

"And the other fifteen percent?!" demanded Shado

"Playlist number fifty-two and number seventeen?" postulated Smoak

"You better hope so!" said Shado and Smoak nodded.

The twins fiddled with the music players again and then strapped them to their arms. Ruby didn't know what Smoak meant, but it sounded like the two of them were just talking music there for a second. They also seemed just to assign a number to her and her sister. Why would they be talking about that just before a fight? And what did the digits mean? Did they correlate to the music they were listening to? Or in some way did it correlate to some other thing that Smoak was trying to make his brother aware of? Either way, it didn't seem like the kind of stuff to be discussing right at that moment, but the two of them seemed to know what it meant.

Smoak stood up and unbuckled Yang's weapons from his wrists. He then strapped them to his back using one of the many leather belts he had. He shook off his leather duster and dropped it in a heap on the concrete. He drew out his nightsticks and flicked them to extend them. He then tossed them in the air, so they tumbled end over end, and caught them again, this time with the end of the weapon facing down. Ruby knew a fight was coming, but she felt sorry for Smoak because he didn't look like he knew what he was doing. Once extended, Smoak held the matching weapons up near his head and bobbed back and forth on the balls of his feet. Ruby knew about Smoak's weapon, nightsticks were an extension of your arm, and magnified any swings, or were used to keep your opponent further than arm's length away to do other attacks, like kicks and the like. There was an unusual protrusion on the side of each of the weapons, and Ruby could have sworn they looked like trigger pulls. But she couldn't be sure, Smoak was moving too much to be able to tell.

"What is he…?" said Ruby, puzzled.

"Oh I get it!" said Yang, catching up to her sister. Yang walked up to Smoak, fists drawn, and the blonde twin acknowledged her presence. Smoak nodded and stopped bobbing for a second to extend one of his fists towards Yang. Yang looked confused, but Smoak kept his fist out for another second or two.

"C'mon, aren't you going to…?" said Smoak looking at his fist.

"What…?" asked Yang with a quizzical look on her face.

"You're a boxer aren't you?" said Smoak, "Aren't you going to tap gloves?"

"Well I don't have my _gloves_ right now…" said Yang, her face souring, but she reached out and tapped Smoak's fist anyway.

"Yeah, and you'll excuse me if I keep them for just a little while longer. I kind of like my head where it is at the moment." Smoak went back to bobbing on his feet, and he and Yang started to circle in the street.

* * *

Ruby tore her gaze away from the fight and began looking around for Shado. The other blonde twin had taken the distraction as an opportunity to slip away, or so she thought. As she scanned the area for Shado, she noticed in the settling dust, a set of footprints slowly making their way across the street and away from Ruby. Ruby grinned and was finally able to wrench her weapon from the brick in the building. She collapsed the weapon back down to its rifle mode and pointed it at where she thought Shado should be. She slowed her breathing and pulled the trigger. The shot rang out and whizzed, right over Shado's head. Ruby was able to tell because, in the light of her shot, she could see Shado flinch and cower from the bullet, but only momentarily. As soon as the bullet passed Shado, she could no longer see him.

"Hmm…that means that you…bend light?" mumbled Ruby, figuring out how the twins were able to go invisible, "So you're still physically there…" she concluded.

Ruby looked around and then bent down to scoop a handful of masonry dust from off the ground. She threw the dust into the air in a wide arc in Shado's direction. The white cloud of dust spread out in every direction that Ruby had thrown it, and Ruby was just hoping that her theory was right. The dust started to settle, and Ruby noticed how some of it settled on Shado. She began to see his outline and the blonde twin could see it as well.

"Crap!" exclaimed Shado, and he gave up being invisible.

Ruby smirked at her brilliance and watched and waited for Shado's reaction so she could plan what her next move would be. Shado seemed just to circle, his hands inching closer and closer to his weapon. Ruby was fascinated by the dual katanas. One of them had an interesting cross guard that almost looked like a heavy duty trigger pull which meant that they transformed into a gun as well, but it didn't explain which gun. Ruby figured that something was, at least, larger than a handgun but no bigger than her sniper rifle. She knew that she would need to keep Shado close to keep him from using his gun. But she knew that he probably had the same thought, which meant this fight was going to be purely a melee fight. Shado kept Ruby at greater than arm's length, all the while bobbing his head to the beat of the music in his ears.

"Why are you doing this?" asked Ruby

"What do you mean?" asked Shado, shouting over his music

"I mean why you guys are robbing us,"

"Is that what this is all…? Dang it, Smoak!" exclaimed Shado

Apparently Shado didn't even know why it was that they were meeting like this. But Shado seemed determined to keep fighting despite the fact that he didn't know the reasons. He slowly advanced towards Ruby, and Ruby was starting to get a little crept out. She clutched Crescent Rose close and pointed a finger and shouted at Shado to keep him away. Ruby gradually backed up into another alley that ended in a deadlock, and she lost sight of Yang and Smoak and their fight. She didn't want to be isolated, but Shado was leaving her no choice. Ruby panicked and pointed her gun at Shado and reached for the trigger. Shado froze for a second, and his gray eyes widened with fear. Shado then quickly tapped a couple of buttons on his music player. Ruby wasn't sure what was going on, but she had just about enough. Ruby even voiced her thoughts out loud about it while firing at Shado in time to her shots.

"I've had…" BANG

"Just about enough…" BANG

"Of weird things today!" BANG

"Your weird…" BANG

"Brother!" BANG

"Your weird…" BANG

"Whistling!" BANG

"Your weird…" BANG

"Everything!" Ruby finished in an exasperated tone. A spent clip smashed to the ground at Ruby's feet, all of the rounds gone. Ruby quickly pulled another large clip from her belt and loaded her weapon.

Shado dodged and rolled to avoid Ruby's shots. Many of them narrowly missed Shado as he nimbly moved out of the way of each of them. Many of the rounds exploded at the end of the alley, blowing Shado forward towards Ruby with the force. Shado paused for a second before deciding whether he wanted to continue forward and attack, or retreat. While the blonde looked like he had just enough of it as well, he didn't look like he was going to attack, and he backed a couple of steps away. It caught Ruby off guard on why Shado was hesitating to attack right away. She could faintly hear the music that Shado was listening to. The beat sounded quiet and slow. Ruby didn't know why anyone would choose to stifle their senses like that during a fight, especially with an unknown foe. But then Ruby realized that her statement applied to Shado as well since he was an unknown opponent. She thought about how she and her team needed to get used to that if they were to have any chance in the future, especially if they were to make it into the Vytal festival. Each team would have different styles of fighting, and they would have to evaluate correctly each of them to combat them.

Ruby took a deep breath and decided to take more time to observe. Ruby's first thought was to try and get out of the alley and back to Yang and end this fight quickly. But, Shado was bobbing and weaving back and forth to the music in his ears, blocking her only exit. He looked kind of like Smoak, but the form didn't read 'boxer.' Instead, Ruby picked up more of a 'martial artist' vibe from Shado. And the worst part was, he looked like he knew what he was doing. Ruby didn't think she'd be able to hold out against someone who could use their body as a weapon. So she redoubled her efforts to try and escape. The alley was too narrow for her to attempt to speed her way past as well. There was a dumpster in the way to the left, and a fire escape on the right. Ruby thought she might be able to go through the spaces between the rungs of the ladder of the fire escape, but even with her small frame, even Ruby was too big to fit through there. When she realized that she couldn't escape, Ruby's next thought was to remove Shado out of the way. She knew that shooting her way past probably wouldn't work, having already proved that method. So she knew it would come down to a hand-to-hand fight. Ruby gulped but decided to give it her best.

Ruby extended her weapon to its full capacity and started into one of the routines that her uncle Qrow had taught her. Ruby wasn't fully aware of it at the moment, but as soon as she started to attack, Shado's music changed. Now the song was loud and fast-paced. Shado grinned and nodded his head as if he agreed to something. Ruby dashed forward and swung her scythe around like a madwoman. A lot of the routine depended on her sticking herself in the way of the revolving scythe at just the right moment to continue its revolving, and to send it in new directions to maximize its attack power. If she missed, the scythe could fly off in a different direction, a new direction, one that Ruby didn't want, or she could end up hurting herself. Shado just stood there, as if he was waiting for Ruby.

The redhead ran forward and swung the scythe over her head, and at Shado's face with great ferocity. Shado just ducked at the last moment. Ruby was caught off guard, but wouldn't be defeated. Shifting into the next part of the routine, Ruby stuck out her wrist so that it would rotate around that joint and change directions. Ruby made as if she were going to cut his right arm off. Shado once again sidestepped the move and went back to bobbing on his feet. Ruby gasped and almost lost her balance. She held fast and worked through her mind about what the next move would be. Ruby pulled on the scythe and set it on an arc to rotate around her petite waist almost like a hula hoop. The move was meant to either slice off the legs, or at very least, knock the opponent on their feet. Shado reacted in sync with Ruby's movement and jumped deftly over the swinging weapon like a jump rope. He landed nimbly on the blade of Ruby's weapon, and that's when she lost control of it. Shado back-flipped off Ruby's weapon with such grace and ease, and one of his split-toed shoes came within a hair's breadth of her nose.

* * *

Yang and Smoak's fight was going a bit more fast paced than Ruby and Shado's, or so Yang felt. The two circled each other like a couple of caged animals, waiting for the other to move. Both of them had more than enough time to read their opponent, and Yang was getting impatient. So she finally crossed the distance between them and started into one of the boxing routines she knew. Yang figured from her analysis that it was the right method. She knew that Smoak's nose was broken and leaned mostly to the left, which meant that his right was the weak side. Most boxers bore the scars of their fights right there on their bodies. The scars were a record of things that didn't work in the past, which made it easy for the eagle-eyed competitors to spot those weaknesses and exploit them. Yang focused most of her attacks on Smoak's right side, distracting him first on his other side with a few jukes and fake jabs, and then going in for a cut on the right cheek.

Smoak reacted just like Yang thought he would, by moving his arms and body to try and block the attacks that would never land. Yang then went in for the finishing move that she was sure to knock him flat on his back. Smoak reacted quickly, ducking under Yang's haymaker moves and then blocking her knockout punch by holding his hands up to his head. Her blow glanced off his nightsticks without further harm. If she was wearing Ember Cilica, Yang knew that shock even if blocked, would have at least stung. But without her weapon, it didn't do anything. As Yang reacted to Smoak's sudden agility, he took advantage and twisted his body to catch Yang's hand on the backswing with the end of his nightstick.

Yang winced as she felt the nightstick rap against her wrist but then made another realization. The reason Smoak held his nightsticks upside-down wasn't because he didn't know how to use them, it was a different technique. The method focused on punching and hitting just like in boxing, but was then followed up with several quick jabs or swings with the elbows and wrists to either increase damage, or to ward off incoming attacks and was mostly used as a defensive technique. The method was perfect for someone like Smoak, who used his nightsticks to cover those areas, meaning that the nightstick hit first instead of his arm. All of that added up to the extra power, and additional damage for each hit. Yang didn't know whether that was smart, or cheating since most typical boxing matches didn't allow the use of other weapons in the ring. But Yang had to remind herself that this wasn't an ordinary boxing match, and so she could do whatever she pleased. She quickly changed tactics to something that would cater more to body shots and takedowns rather than going for the quick knockout. That way she could be sure that Smoak wouldn't be able to counter her.

Dancing in close again, Yang faked like she was going to hit his head again and then threw several quick uppercuts at his stomach and chest. Yang felt excited once she felt a few of her punches hit on the blonde twin's torso. Smoak groaned, and he slid back a few feet from the power. Smoak blinked and scowled to fight through the pain. He wound up and spat a boogie that was mixed with blood on the ground. Both of the combatants stared at it for a second. Yang stared with a sense of accomplishment, and Smoak with a feeling of dread. He wiped his lip to get the last of the blood, but it stained the end of his immaculate white shirt.

"Dang, I was about to say you hit like a girl, but I don't a lot of girls who can hit like that!" he said, "I think my grandma is one of them!"

Yang decided to retort with her fists. She got in close again and decided not to deviate from her previous strategy. Smoak was ready this time, he quickly twirled one of his nightsticks around and swung at Yang. Yang was able to see it coming and dodged out of the way. She then exploited Smoak's opening and laid into him. Smoak grunted and groaned again when he felt Yang's fists pepper his side. Yang punched every available inch of Smoak that he could. She felt a crack and was sure she had broken a bone. In the confusion, Yang darted around Smoak and unclasped her weapon from off of Smoak's back. Yang was ecstatic to have her weapon finally back.

Smoak swung wildly in Yang's direction to get her to retreat, and the move worked. Yang withdrew a few feet off and waited for Smoak's next move as she strapped Ember Cilica onto her arms. The blonde twin stood slightly hunched over and gasping as he held his side where Yang had hit him. He wiped sweat and more blood from his face and mouth and sighed. He looked down at his arm where his music player was strapped and saw that it was busted. Yang now knew what had cracked, it wasn't a bone, but his music player, now she was disappointed that she didn't end up breaking a bone. Smoak gazed between Yang and his busted player and then stood up straight and collapsed his nightsticks.

"Well this isn't working…" said Smoak, he pursed his lips and let out a quick whistle.

Yang had heard his whistling all day but paid it no mind until Ruby brought up that it was more than a locator. Once she heard Smoak whistle, she knew he was about to pull something. She rushed to get in close to finish Smoak off but was beat to it. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a flash of gray and red. Yang followed the blur and thought she had blinked when she saw Smoak warp out of sight, along with the streak of gray and red. Yang stopped and blinked and even rubbed her eyes to make sure she saw that right. Her eyes didn't deceive her. One second Smoak was there, the next he wasn't. Yang was about to scream when she heard her sister shouting from a nearby alley.

* * *

Crescent Rose clattered to the ground, and Ruby was astonished at Shado's move. No one had been able to read her movements like that before. It was almost like he knew what she was going to do before she did it. It then occurred to Ruby that something like that could be at play here. Ignorant of it before, she could hear the music that Shado was listening to from fast-paced back down to its calm state that it was a moment to go. Was she the reason it did that? Or had Shado just found a song that matched her movements so well, it just seemed he was predicting the future? Ruby decided to test the theory she had in her head. Closing her eyes, she shut out the outside world and just focused on what she could hear. She could hear some low grunts and groans from Smoak and Yang's fight, so it took all her concentration to focus on what she wanted to hear. Ruby strained but then heard it as clear as day. The muffled sound of Shado's music as it played into his ears. Ruby started into testing.

She felt around on the ground for the handle for her weapon and finally grasped the handle of her scythe. There was no change in the music. So it wasn't based on anything she did herself. If that wasn't it, then what triggered the change in music? Did she need to attack? Ruby opened her eyes again; there was no way she'd be able to do this next part without being able to see what she was trying to hit. But she still tried to focus on the sound of Shado's music. She didn't want to do anything fancy; she was afraid she'd miss it if she did something that made it so she couldn't hear if there were a response. So she just decided to slice Crescent Rose straight down like she was trying to cleave Shado in two from head to toe. Ruby's movements were slow and deliberate, that way she literally wouldn't miss a beat. Raising the weapon over her head, she noted that the music picked up slightly. She paused, to check to see if it was a fluke. But the music's pace halted too. Ruby then followed through with the swing and pulled down on the handle to direct the blade right at Shado's head. The music built to a crescendo, and Shado's hands flew up to meet the blade in mid-air, just inches from his cowl.

Ruby gasped and tried to draw back, but Shado had a firm grasp on the edge of Crescent Rose. She tugged and pulled, but Shado had the weapon tight in his grip. She was shocked that he was able to keep such a firm hold on her scythe, but she also noted that the music had slowed again. Ruby had enough and thought she had finally figured it out. She darted forward and pulled on the cords that were attached to the buds in Shado's ears. They fell out with a pop and Shado looked slightly taken aback. Ruby figured she had finally gained the advantage. But all Shado did was laugh. He let go of Ruby's scythe, and she took a couple of steps back.

"What? What is it?" said Ruby, "What's so funny?" she wasn't liking where this was going.

"You know, I have to give you props there, Red." Ruby scowled at the mention of the nickname that was given to her by Torchwick, "You're not the first to make that connection between the music, and my moves," he said

"But do you seriously think a little music was what was telling me what you were going to do next?" Shado continued to laugh, and Ruby let go of the cords. The earbuds clattered to the ground, and Ruby felt scared.

If it wasn't the music, then what? Was she so predictable? No, there was no way! There was no way that Shado had fought another scythe wielder before. The only two she knew were herself and her uncle, and Ruby hadn't seen Qrow in ages. Which probably meant that he was off on school business and had been gone for a while, so there was no way that Shado had fought him. Ruby was sure she would have heard about it from Qrow himself if he had. Shado wasn't a student at Haven. Even though the blonde twin was older, there was no way that she wouldn't have not heard of him, even in legends at the school. Ruby was at a loss for words; there was no way a human being was able to predict the movements of another before they happened. Ruby didn't even know of a semblance that allowed a person to do that, and she already knew Shado's semblance was invisibility and intangibility. There was no way he had three unique powers. Shado just continued to stand there and laugh. Ruby was getting angry at how un-sportsman he seemed right now.

"I've seen that look before…" said Shado, his laughs subsiding, "You're wondering if I'm even human…" he said, in a genuine attempt to read Ruby's mind.

"There's no way…" stammered Ruby

"There's no way what?" interrupted Shado, "That'd I'd be able to read your mind and predict your next move? Or that my music was doing it for me? That'd be a neat little trick, but no, I just know your type."

"Wha- What do you mean?" stammered Ruby, genuinely frightened at the moment.

"I'm saying I've seen people like you before, fought them too. Quick into battle, quick to finish your opponents, but hesitant. Nothing wrong with that, and you make a good tactician for sure; you're probably the leader of your team aren't you?" Ruby nodded hesitantly, "See, that's what I thought."

"You can read other people and think on your toes. But you're not fast enough," said Shado with a sneer.

Ruby felt anger welling up in her chest, and her fists curled around the handle of her weapon. Shado noticed and chuckled. Ruby didn't know what to make of Shado. He oozed confidence like his brother, but not particularly in a good way. All it was doing was ticking her off. She wasn't sure she believed Shado. Even if he claimed to have fought people like her before, that still didn't mean he would know what she was going to do before she did.

"Want more proof?" said Shado, "What was it Smoak said? Thirty-four or Fifty-two?" Shado looked like he recalled something for a second.

"More like fifty-two if you ask me…" he concluded, "So, you wanna know?"

"I- I don't know!" said Ruby, rather truthfully

"I know you, Miss Ruby Rose like I know your semblance is speed," rattled off Shado

"You are a little young to be at Beacon, but you managed to impress the right people into letting you skip a couple of years and thus you're here. I'd say the headmaster; there's no way that anyone else would have the power to make such a decision."

"Stop it…" mumbled Ruby

"And what did Smoak say about the other one? Twenty-two or seventeen? More like seventeen to me…"

"Stop it…!" said Ruby a little louder

"So I can also say I know that blondie over there," he said with a jerk of his thumb over his shoulder, "Her semblance is combat durability, meaning that whenever she gets hit that she can absorb and channel that energy back into her next attack. And I also know that you two aren't actually sisters, but half-sisters."

"Stop it! There's no way!" shouted Ruby. Her voice echoed off the walls.

"Ruby? Ruby I'm coming!" said a familiar voice

"Yang!" said Ruby

* * *

Ruby made to get past Shado and out of the alley. But Shado held up and arm to keep the redhead in her place. Ruby looked like she was going to break the blonde's arm, but Shado paused, Ruby too and pointed a finger towards the end of the alley, and held another up to his mask to where his mouth would be. He looked like he was silencing Ruby so she could witness something. Ruby stared at the end of the alley and saw as Yang suddenly appeared at the mouth of it. Ruby felt overjoyed that she was able to survive and beat Smoak. But she was worried what would happen if she were to go up against Shado.

"Sis! Look out!" warned Ruby

"What is it Ruby? I can take this guy!" said Yang, holding up her fists and advancing on Shado. Ruby saw that she was able to get back her weapons, "At least he's not like his brother, dirty coward," mumbled Yang.

"Just watch…" said Shado, "Won't even need the music this time." Ruby was scared.

Yang ran towards Shado, one of her fists poised to punch. Shado deftly knocked her fist aside and parried all her other attacks. Each of Yang's attacks was focused out, channeled away, and deflected without a problem. Yang looked shocked as none of her attacks landed. Shado's hands seemed like a blur as he quickly parried a new round of punches. There was a couple of faint click sounds and then Yang's weapon fell from her arms. Shado had found the release on Yang's gun and managed to undo it. Ember Cilica fell from Yang's arms and fell to the ground with a loud clang. Yang was flabbergasted and stared at her arms.

"How did you…?" she said, shocked.

Shado just stood there. Yang was panting and gasping, but Shado looked like he hadn't even broken a sweat. Yang regained herself and wound up for another punch. She shouted out, and Shado deftly caught her fist. Yang swung her other fist, but Shado caught that one too. Moving quickly, Shado pinned Yang's arms using his up against his side and then drew back and head-butted Yang. Shado immediately let go of Yang, and she stumbled away. Ruby's sister groaned and cried out in pain, and she pulled away, holding her head in her hands. Ruby felt a mix of pure terror and anger at the whole thing. She had seen enough. Ruby gripped her weapon in her hands and made to swing at Shado. But she suddenly felt a pair of arms grab her from behind.

"Uh but bah!" said Smoak, "We can't have that now, can we?" Smoak grabbed hold of Ruby's arms behind her back and twisted back and up and pinned them there. Ruby dropped Crescent Rose and groaned in pain as her arms were wrenched a direction they weren't made to go.

Ruby screamed as she felt her arms continue to twist. Smoak seemed to come out of nowhere! She didn't hear him, and she didn't see him either before he attacked. But then Ruby thought there was no way that he could have gotten back there without her noticing. The alley was too narrow for him to sneak by without making a noise or avoid the fight that just happened, not to mention the fact that the alley hit a dead end right behind her. And it's not like he snuck up from behind. Where did he come from? Ruby bucked and rocked, trying to get out of Smoak's death-grip. But Smoak held fast and twisted more until Ruby stopped struggling. All she could do was watch.

* * *

Shado stood over Yang as she struggled to regain herself. She panted and gasped as she braced herself on one knee. Her head was throbbing like crazy, but Shado seemed otherwise unaffected. She growled and launched herself upward in an attempt to retaliate. The hooded bounty hunter quickly swatted away her hands. Yang stood up on both feet and swung wildly. The blonde twin just whacked her hands away every time Yang got close. With cat-like agility, Shado rushed forward and blocked any other incoming attacks and then directed a quick jab for Yang's throat. Yang stopped immediately and collapsed to the ground. With her windpipe collapsed, Yang struggled to draw breath, and she laid on the floor flopping around like a fish out of the water.

Ruby fought and struggled against Smoak, but the blonde twin held fast. Yang laid on the ground until her breathing slowed, and Ruby was afraid that her sister was dead. But Yang stirred slightly on the ground, and Ruby let out a sigh. Ruby noticed that her sister started to glow a faint red color, which meant that her semblance had finally activated. With that last blow, she probably had enough to deal with Shado and Smoak both. She slowly rose up and stood on her feet, and the look in her eye spelled death.

But before Yang could attack, Shado let out a low whistle and Yang felt a sharp pain in her neck. Yang stumbled and tried to leap forward to still lay her hands on the blonde twin. All she accomplished was stumbling more. She ended up falling to one knee to brace herself once again. She reached up to her neck and pulled whatever it was that had hit her, out. The object was a dart with a feathery end. Yang had seen the dart somewhere before, but she couldn't remember where. Yang faltered again as a wave of numbness swept over her. Yang looked up at Shado, who was looming over her.

"Dirty…cheat…" grunted Yang through numb lips which were steadily growing number by the second.

"I wouldn't call it cheating…" said Shado, "Just using my resources," Yang collapsed to the ground in a heap and laid motionless.

* * *

Shado turned to face Ruby, "See? What'd I tell you? I know more about you than you even know!"

There was no physical way that Shado knew all these things. Her semblance, Yang's semblance, and all that other stuff. She hadn't even used her semblance near Shado the entire time, and there was no way he knew personal things like how she got into Beacon, let alone who it was that that allowed it. What seemed impossible was the fact that he was able to know accurately Yang's semblance and the fact that they weren't paternally related. The anger and confusion that Ruby felt built to a peak. Shado seemed content to continue, and so she knew the only way to get him to stop, was for her to make him stop. Ruby pulled again, and Smoak stopped her from struggling. Ruby was quickly running out of options.

The only thing she could think to do was something she knew she would regret later if she didn't do it right. Ruby raised herself onto her tip-toes, and Smoak followed to keep her pinned. This was exactly what Ruby wanted. Once Smoak had her arms fully pinned again, Ruby started to tip forwards. The extra torsion didn't feel good, but Ruby knew she'd need all the room she could get. Ruby held her breath, waiting for the right moment. Shado didn't look like he was going to shut up anytime soon. But Ruby bided her time and waited for the perfect opportunity. Shado turned to look at Yang's cold frame, and then she struck. Whipping her head back, she collided with Smoak's head as hard as she could. She could hear a couple of cracks and a shout from Smoak, and the blonde twin released her arms. Shado turned to look at what was going on, but Ruby was faster.

In that time, Ruby slid down and grabbed Crescent Rose off the ground. She picked up her weapon and then stood up and pointed it at Shado. The hooded bounty hunter looked shocked. From behind her, she heard a faint whistling noise and Ruby turned to look. Smoak had vanished almost as quickly as he had appeared earlier, leaving no trace. Ruby then spun around again to see Shado hadn't moved an inch in that time. She almost expected to be attacked again, but Shado stood there like he was a statue the entire time. Ruby gulped and then pointed Crescent Rose at his head.

"What? You think you can take me?" said Shado

Ruby wasn't sure, but she didn't want to end up like Yang. She wasn't sure if her sister was unconscious or dead there on the ground. And Ruby didn't mean to find out by having one of those things that had hit Yang, hit her. So the only option in Ruby's mind was to fight. She prepared herself mentally and queued up in her mind one of her more complicated routines. But Ruby hesitated, if Shado knew what she was going to do, then there was no way she could attack. He would see through it right away. Ruby decided to make up an impromptu routine on the spot. Shado just stood ways off, bobbing and weaving. Although she couldn't see it, she was sure that Shado was grinning under his mask. Ruby had enough, and she raced forward.

"Right swipe!" called Shado suddenly, and Ruby faltered. That was the particular move she was about to do! She changed her stance on the fly and tried again.

"Left diagonal cross!"

"Downward strike!"

"Right upward swing!"

"Left spiral spin!"

Move for move, Shado called what Ruby was about to do, and Ruby panicked more. She stumbled over her feet and nearly tripped at Shado's feet. But she was able to catch herself and then stood there. She was feeling increasingly frustrated and exasperated. She didn't know what to! Shado would be able to see any attack coming from a mile away! She figured the only way to fight was to wait for Shado to come to her. The two continued to pace when all the sudden, like lightning, Shado pulled his swords and lunged at Ruby. Ruby barely had any time to react, she drew her scythe up to block the attack, and barely deflected one of Shado's blows. The sword glanced off to the side of Ruby's right ear, and a flurry of sparks came from their clashing weapons. Ruby, however, didn't account for the other sword and felt it connect with the back of her knees as Shado swept the sword to take her legs out from underneath her. It wasn't a lethal blow and did more to disorient Ruby more than anything.

Ruby was surprised, once she felt the cold steel of Shado's katana on the back of her knees, she was sure she was done. But instead, Shado opted for the non-lethal takedown. Shado danced away to avoid any backlash that might have come and stood a distance away and waited for Ruby to get back to her feet. Ruby thought that Shado was too polite for a fight like this. He would spend his time bobbing and weaving, and not attacking like most opponents she had faced. She wondered what his ploy was. Ruby felt like they were playing an intricate game of chess or at the very least an intense game of cat and mouse. Both of them looked like they were deep in thought, as each of them was planning their next move. Ruby made the next move, it was a chancy one, but it would be one to gauge how good Shado was at defense once his hands were full. Ruby thought she saw an opening in Shado's defense if she were to do the same thing Shado just did, and sweep out the knees. She leaped forward and used the butt end of her weapon; she swept a wide arc that was aimed at Shado's legs.

Shado reacted quickly to Ruby's move and dropped one of his katanas to catch Ruby's scythe. The two collided with a clang and Shado raised his other hand to pop Ruby over the head with the hilt of his other sword. Ruby's head rang as the hit landed. She reeled and groaned as she drew away from Shado. Shado backed off and continued to bob as Ruby recovered. Ruby didn't understand, why was Shado taking it easy in this fight? He probably had her dead to rights several times already, but he still decided to hang back and just bruise instead of wound. Ruby didn't have much time to think about it though because Shado gave a little whistle and all Ruby heard after that was a small 'fwip' and a slight sting in her neck. Ruby instinctively drew her hand to her neck and felt a little protrusion sticking out of it. Ruby dug the object out and looked at it. It was a small dart with a feathery end… like the ones that Ash had in her quiver belt. And the kind that she was sure that Yang just sampled a moment ago.

As soon as Ruby recognized it, her vision became hazy, and she started to collapse. Smoak appeared next to Shado in a flash of gray and green, and Ruby thought that the dart was beginning to make her hallucinate. She stumbled and dropped her weapon at her feet, and Ruby tried to fight it. She took a couple of steps towards the twins and then she felt another sting in her chest. She looked down and saw another dart sticking out of the middle of her bust. The extra dose quickly made everything turn gray and blurry. Ruby stumbled once more as the dart took its effect on her. But she wasn't going out like this. Her face and legs were slowly turning numb, but Ruby wasn't going to give up. She took one more step and another sting, this time on her arm. Another step, and another sting in her abdomen. Finally, the drugs were too much for Ruby, and she passed out. Smoak rushed forward and grabbed the redhead and held her in his arms. The last thing Ruby heard was,

"Nighty night…" said Smoak as he whispered in her ear.

Ruby fainted, and Smoak braced up against Ruby and slowly lowered her to the ground. This is exactly what he had been planning all along.


	6. Chapter 5- Hitting the Road

Howdy, folks! Another month, another chapter! I feel like this one took longer though since things have been picking up with school and work. Also, I have been trying my hardest to become a professional street magician (some of you have noticed the change in my username from 'assassinhayd' to 'magicianhayd') And so there's not been a lot of time to write. But I've managed to sneak in the time, and so here is the next installment. I think I'm going to keep up with this pattern of present day/flashback and then back to the present day. The story will be slightly split, but if you want to read it in order, all you have to do is read every other chapter and then go back and read all the opposite chapters. This way I get to explain my OC's more, also, I won't be making up things that couldn't have happened in the space of Volume 3 of RWBY. Let me know what you guys think about that, and enjoy!

 **Ch. 4- Hitting the Road**

* * *

Smoak entered the house and slammed the door behind him. The force of it rattled the walls of the tiny abode. Smoak kicked off his boots at the front door and then ran up the narrow staircase in front of him. Once on the landing of the next floor, he entered the first door on the left and into a small bathroom. He cleaned his face off from the dried blood on it and took a moment to scope out his new scar. The blemish was large, and went from just below his eyebrow, past his eye, and then stopped just above his upper lip. He wondered if the scar would have any effect as it did Roy's, which turned the iris of the officer's affected eye translucent. While Smoak did think the scar was ugly, the mark overall made him look slightly roguish, like his father. But Smoak didn't have much time to admire his new mark because he heard the gate to the fence creak open and then clang shut. He craned his neck to look out a small window and saw his mom and dad walking towards the house. Not wanting another lecture, Smoak stopped what he was doing.

The blonde twin quickly exited the bathroom and ran to the end of the hall and looked up. There was a pull string that was attached to a panel in the ceiling. Smoak reached up and pulled on the cord. The panel swung down to reveal a set of stairs that led up to an attic room. He dashed up the stairs and then at the top, he kicked one of the trusses of the roof nearest the door as he passed by, which caused the stairs to wobble, then retract behind him.

The room was quite large compared to the rest of the house. Since it was in the attic, it ran the whole length of the house, from end to end. The attic room was a last-minute addition to the building. When the family moved to their current location, Brick and Sapphire didn't know until the house was almost done that they were having a baby girl. So the couple needed to make room for the new addition. So, the attic got converted from a storage area to the twin's bedroom to do just that. Smoak didn't mind, it was probably the biggest place in the house, and that's what Smoak liked about it, he hated feeling cramped.

But even though Smoak hated being cramped and squished, that was exactly what he was doing to his emotions at that moment. Everything was bottled up and crammed into him, and it felt like he was going to explode in at least a dozen different directions. He wouldn't admit it, but Sapphire had struck a nerve with Smoak. He needed time to decompress and think. For someone who went invisible, it should have been easy to make anywhere a safe place to hide and be alone. But Smoak had a particular spot he went when he wanted to be alone. As quietly as he could, Smoak took off running towards the other side of the room. Once he reached the far wall, he stuck out his leg and vaulted up towards the rafters. Twisting slightly in midair, he deftly caught the nearest beam and hoisted himself up into the trusses that supported the roof. Once he was on the beam, Smoak laid down, one of his legs dangling off the support, and willed himself to go invisible.

The blonde's body faded out of view, and he lounged up in the rafters to try and give himself some time to decompress and collect his thoughts. There was so much on Smoak's mind that he didn't hear the door to the room squeak open. There were faint footsteps up the steps and then a thud and another creak as the newcomer kicked the truss to close the door behind them. Smoak heard it that time, and closed his eyes to and tried to block out the noise. He prepped himself for either an argument from his mother or the quiet footsteps of his brother. But instead, he heard the scuffling steps of his sister. The blonde girl glanced around the room like she was looking for something. When she wasn't able to find it, Smoak started to notice an increase of light in the room; Sunni was charging up to flash. Not wanting to be blinded, Smoak willed himself to become visible again.

"I'm here, I'm here!" said Smoak, sitting up to face his younger sister.

"I knew I'd find you up here," said Sunni, matter-of-factly.

"What do you want little denkyu?" said Smoak, calling Sunni by her nickname. Smoak had found the word going through one of his mother's old books. It meant 'lightbulb', and he felt it fit Sunni perfectly ever since she had her semblance unlocked.

Sunni scowled, she wasn't sure she liked the pet name or not, "Mom and dad want to talk to you."

"I'm sure I already knew that before you came up here," said Smoak with a sigh, he laid back down on the wooden beam and closed his eyes again.

"No, mom said she isn't done with you yet, and dad wants to talk to her before you do to try and calm her down," said Sunni

"And how does that change anything?"

"Because dad wants to talk to you individually before you talk to mom, out in the workshop."

Smoak opened his eyes and looked sideways at Sunni. He raised an eyebrow at her, and she just shrugged. The only time that Brick wanted to talk to his children alone was when he put on his 'serious dad' hat. It wasn't a side that he often showed, reserving it only for the most important of occasions. They were times when Smoak got some of his best advice or was able to talk about anything he wanted. Usually, the conversations were long and ended with one or both of them in tears or hugging. Not that Smoak didn't mind that from time to time, but he wasn't in the mood for something like that today. He just wanted to be left alone, and the prospect of him having to face his dad at a time like this didn't appeal to the blonde twin.

"Dad said that he'll wait for you to come to him, but if you keep him waiting that he'll come up here after you," informed Sunni.

"Yeah, yeah, I got it," said Smoak.

He wanted to see how long it would take for Brick to come up to the attic because there was no way that Smoak was coming down anytime soon. He wasn't doing it to be spiteful, he just really didn't want to move, preferring to sit and sulk. Sunni smiled, and her whole countenance shone a little brighter. Smoak chuckled slightly at his sister, and she pouted in return. The blonde girl turned and exited the attic room. Smoak continued to lay up in the rafters and then willed himself to go invisible again. He sulked in mood and about the new scar on his face and several other things as well. Several hours had passed before the door creaked open once again. There was a thud as the next person to enter kicked the truss to shut the door. Smoak deduced that it wasn't his dad. Brick hated that his children kicked the truss to close the attic door, feeling like it was beating up the house that he had built with his two hands. But they did it anyway, it was the easiest way to close the door, and the quickest. The footsteps were quiet and deliberate; Smoak knew that it was his twin.

Shado didn't say a word, but instead walked over to a small table on one side of the room and proceeded to go into a little routine. Shado had a habit of doing things a certain way each time he entered their shared room. It wasn't compulsive by any means, but Shado did it anyway to keep in the habit of doing it, and because it helped him unwind and relax. First he removed his katanas from his back and placed them on a particular stand. Then he pulled down his mask and cowl and pulled off the armored shirt off over his head. He then put the shirt on a mere mannequin and pulled the hood and masked over the wire framed head. Smoak thought it was excessive to do that, but Shado claimed it helped to keep the shape of his hood. From a hook on the wall, Shado removed a plain looking robe, slipped it on, and tied it at his waist.

It was the next part of the routine that Smoak hated the most. It was completely optional, but Shado did it often enough that Smoak no longer thought that it was optional to Shado. The blonde twin retrieved a small stick of incense from a chest of drawers and placed it on a stand. He then sat cross-legged on the ground in front of the incense stand and lit the perfumed wood with a handy box of matches. Within minutes, the room was filled with the sickly-sweet smell of the incense. Shado sat, eyes closed, breath deep. It was a meditation ritual that Shado had found in his studies when he was studying with their mom for swordplay. He liked it so much that he performed it often, usually when he was done with the day and preparing for bed. Smoak sat bolt upright and looked out the window.

Little had he realized, it was getting close to night, and their dad still hadn't come looking for him. And what worried him more was that meant his mom had time to stew in her anger. If their mom wasn't able to say everything she wanted to say right away during an argument, she formed a grudge. And Sapphire wasn't one to drop a grudge just because time passed. She still had several grudges she held with people she hadn't even seen in years, and sometimes for the pettiest of reasons. Often the only way Sapphire dropped a grudge was to get out all her anger by shouting at the person at the top of her lungs either until she was done or until she went hoarse.

Smoak was terrified thinking back on the rare times that Smoak had ticked his mom off. On those occasions, he had the displeasure of sitting through on of his mom's 'scream sessions' until he felt like all he would be able to hear from that point on was the ringing in his head. With all this time that passed, Smoak was sure she could be reaching levels near atomic in her anger. Smoak was a little panicked of what might happen; he was sure that the scar on his face was one of the least of his worries at a time like this. The last wisp of the incense stick went out with a small sizzle and Shado finished the routine. Smoak could feel his grasp on invisibility start to go, and he realized that Shado was stealing the ability from him. Smoak was a little wary of giving up his hiding spot, but Shado probably already knew where he was. Smoak relinquished his control of invisibility to Shado, and the blonde twin disappeared slightly for a second, and then reappeared moments later. Without even opening his eyes, Shado started to talk in a calm voice.

"You know dad is still waiting for you to speak to him."

"Yeah, but I'm more worried about what mom's going to say, let alone do if I walk through the house to go out to the workshop," said Smoak from his position up in the rafters.

"Mom isn't angry at you," said Shado calmly

"What?"

"Mom isn't mad at you," repeated Shado, "She is a little miffed that you walked off in the middle of the discussion you guys were having, but otherwise she's okay."

"You call that a discussion?!" shouted Smoak

"I'm not willing to label it anything right now; mom was the one who called it a discussion, and I'm quoting her,"

"Well that 'discussion,'," said Smoak putting the word in air quotes, "Was a little one-sided if you ask me."

"You need to calm down, all this hostility is not going to help you later, it's best to let it go," said Shado, all very Zen-like.

"Yeah, well you take this hostility and shove…"

"Uh-uh," chided Shado, warning his twin about finishing that sentence.

Smoak grunted in anger and laid back down on the beam, "Look, if dad wants to talk to me, he can come up here to do it."

"That was pretty cool what you did earlier," said Shado out of the blue.

"What?"

"That was pretty cool," said Shado, "The way you dove off the cliff to save Sunni."

"Yeah but it was pretty stupid too," said Smoak.

"I'm not saying it wasn't reckless, but I think it was neat that you thought the best way to save Sunni was to throw yourself into danger as well."

"What is this?" demanded Smoak, "A congratulations or another lecture? Because I'll tell you, I've had enough of those today."

"I'm not going to lecture you, and unlike mom, I am quite grateful you are still around and that you tried to save Sunni."

"Yeah well you're lucky you have both of those things. It's either we'd be missing one family member or two if Roy wasn't around today," Smoak said with a scowl, "Ugh! If only I weren't so stupid!"

"To what are you referring?" asked Shado

"If only I had my weapon, I would be able to help you guys fight! And then something like what happened today wouldn't have happened!" said Smoak

"I fail to see how you obtaining a weapon would have prevented today's Grimm attack," said Shado.

Smoak sighed and sat up, "That's not what I'm saying! If I had a weapon I could have helped with the attack, and even when I fell off the cliff to save Sunni! I wouldn't have needed Roy's help; I would have been fine!"

"And you think a weapon is going to solve all of this magically for you?" queried Shado.

"Well not everything, but most things! Here, look," said Smoak.

The blonde twin thought of going through the beam, and his body went corporeal and phased through the wood. Once through, he switched thoughts to becoming stable again. Smoak landed and rolled to break his fall, and to quiet his landing. He walked over to one side of the room and started to rustle through a stack of papers on a desk. The room was littered with pieces of sketch paper, pencil shavings, and sawdust on one side of the room. And the other side of the room was littered with metal bits, flecks of Dust, and small tools for use on firearms.

Smoak thought it was easy to tell whose side was whose. His was the side covered with paper and wood. This was because he had spent most of his free time daydreaming and sketching weapon designs based on those visions. And when he wasn't sketching, he was carving. Carving was something that Smoak did to relax. He had picked up on it from Cole who taught him. That was however before Smoak started to despise the muscle-bound team leader. But regardless of Smoak's feelings towards Cole, if it weren't for his instruction, Smoak would have never been able to carve the ring he gave to Olive.

The other side of the room was Shado's, and it smelled like gun grease and used gun casings. Mainly because Shado preferred to maintain his weapon up in their room, and not in the workshop where their dad puttered. He claimed it was a 'less judgmental atmosphere', and that he could work in peace. And it was true, any time Shado stepped foot into the workshop to work on his weapon, whether it was his katanas, Lightbane, and Dusk, or the rifle, Moonsight, Brick would be there to try and lend some 'helpful' advice. Finally, Shado had gotten fed up with it and transferred all the tools that were his into the attic. It was easy, especially when the twins were able just to phase most of the larger stuff through the floor using their semblance, skipping the narrow staircase that led to their bedroom. Finally, Smoak found what he was looking for. He pulled it out of the stack and walked over to his brother. Shado was still sitting on the ground when Smoak shoved the paper in his face.

"See? Take a look at this!" Smoak said excitedly.

"What is this?" asked Shado, opening his eyes to see the paper take up most of his field of view.

"It's one of the weapon designs I came up with!" said Smoak, pulling the paper out of Shado's face and then pouring over it with renewed excitement.

"And how is this one different from all the other ones you've come up with?" asked Shado skeptically.

Smoak had spent many months trying to get with a weapon design that he liked. So far none of them stuck since he had gotten so picky over the littlest of details. Smoak was chasing perfection, and everyone was sure he'd never find it. So far Smoak had tried everyone's weapons that he could get his hands on to try and see what he liked, but he always had his qualms about one thing or another. According to Smoak, Brick's weapon was too bulky and inefficient for someone like him. Shado's weapon was too impersonal for him since he preferred to fight opponents face-to-face and at a distance closer than that of a sword. He had even tried all of Team CORL's weapons at one time or another, and all claimed that they were decent weapons, but that they just didn't feel right. The only one he liked the most was Sapphire's broadsword/machine gun combo, quoting that he liked the weight of the weapon and the rounds it used since they were both unique. However, the sword was too long and jagged for him. Smoak giggled gleefully as he looked at the sketch paper.

"Because I think I've found what the issue was!"

"So what's the answer this time?" questioned Shado

"Two weapons!" Smoak said like it was obvious.

"What?"

"That's right! Two weapons!" said Smoak.

"What?!"

"I realized what my problem was! I was too focused on finding the right _weapon_ for me," said Smoak with emphasis, "But I realized that no single weapon will ever be able to cut it! So I realized that I needed _weapons_ to solve the problem," said Smoak with more emphasis.

"Weapons?"

"Uh-huh!"

"Like plural?"

"Uh-huh!"

"How is that any different than the twenty other sketches you've come up with before?!" shouted Shado, rising to his feet to point to the paper in Smoak's hand.

"Now, now!" joked Smoak, "All this hostility…?"

Shado sighed and regained his composure, "I apologize."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever…!" said Smoak dismissively. Shado groaned but took a deep breath and sat back down on the ground.

"Please explain the difference to me, I'm not quite sure I comprehend your meaning," said Shado with a forced voice.

"Well I was thinking of a way to combine all the right things from all the weapons I've tried," said Smoak

"You only mean the handful of weapons that are available to you," said Shado.

"Whatever!" said Smoak quickly, "And I was thinking about how most of them seem to have a similar partner weapon."

"Like what?" said Shado

"Like how you have two katanas, and they match! Or how Lilac has her matching pistols," explained Smoak.

"So your thought is to make two…matching…weapons?" asked Shado slowly.

"No, no!" said Smoak, "I mean two _un-_ matching weapons!"

" _Un_ -matching?" asked Shado hesitantly, "Is that even a word?"

"It is now…!" joked Smoak, and Shado groaned.

"So what? What does that all mean?" asked Shado

"Well, I mean having two weapons that work together, but are totally not the same as each other!" said Smoak as he turned the piece of paper to face Shado. Shado looked at the paper.

"You mean like a mace and a flail?" Shado raised an eyebrow as he studied the paper.

Smoak sighed and looked at the paper and then crumpled it up and then threw it over his shoulder, "You're right, it does sound a little ridiculous…" he said dejectedly.

"No, no!" said Shado, shaking his arms back and forth to try and soothe Smoak, "I thought that was one of the best ideas you've had yet!" he said weakly.

"You don't have to patronize me," said Smoak, "Besides, I stole most of the idea from Olive's Hunting Falcon," said the blonde twin, mentioning the woman's grappling hooks.

"Well I'm sure you'll come up with a good design…um…any day now!" said Shado, trying to console his twin.

"Ah, stop it," said Smoak, "If I were going to have that good idea, it would have happened at least a month ago. I thought I had it all figured out!" he said throwing his hands up in the air.

"Figured what out?" asked Shado

"A way to combine a weapon with something that uses these!" said Smoak reaching into a small, handmade leather pouch on his belt. He pulled out to show a couple spent casings and one unspent round that their mom used in her gun.

"Mom's rounds? You know that she custom-made those to be used in her gun? No other guns can fire those rounds," said Shado, taking one of the spent casings from Smoak's hand.

"You don't think I know that?!" said Smoak, taking back the spent casing from Shado, and shoving them all back into his pouch, " I was hoping to be able to find at least something that could accommodate these rounds," he said sourly.

"Why? Why these rounds and not any others?" asked Shado.

"What do you mean?" asked Smoak

"There are so many other types of bullets out there, why these?" clarified Shado.

"Because I think that these are what you've been missing from your experiments," said Smoak pointing over to Shado's side of the room.

Most of Shado's side of the room was taken up by a large workbench and another equally large reloading bench. The reloading bench was where Shado painstakingly refilled each antique casing he used. Since the gun was already an antique when he inherited it, the ammo for it was hard to come by. So Shado was careful to collect as many casings as he could whenever he shot so that he could refill them later.

Lately, Shado had been experimenting with reloading his bullets with different types of Dust, the combustive force behind all of his projectiles. In most of his bullets, he used a simple red Dust like most other people with similar firearms, which was fine. But Shado had become interested in testing to see what different types did for firing. Most of the experiments had been a failure up to this point, with some ending in Shado either almost freezing his hand off or nearly blowing up the house. So, to avoid catastrophe, their parents asked Shado to experiment outside. And once he could prove that his test wouldn't destroy them all, then it could be allowed in the house. Smoak had become interested in Shado's experiments as well. He thought it would be cool to have a bullet for every situation you might be in.

"This again?" asked Shado with a bit of regret.

So far all of Shado's experiments had gone poorly, and he preferred not to think about them. But in the meantime, the blonde twin had been trying all sorts of variables to figure out where his problems were. And so far Shado had deduced that it wasn't the Dust that was the problem. It was the size of his bullet casings. They were too big for the job. Too much Dust in the bullet would cause it to misfire and crack the casings. Too little wouldn't be enough for the round to leave the barrel. And the more particular Dust types he put in, the more dramatic the reaction that would occur when the bullet fired, almost to the point it was a danger to everyone around. Too little, and the effect wouldn't manifest itself. It was a careful balancing game, and no two sets of Dust ever had the same effects compared to all the others. Since he needed room for both the propellant, and the particular Dust, Shado figured he needed something with the mass of a pistol bullet, but shaped like a rifle bullet.

And to top it all off, Shado figured if he were able to produce the magic combination, it would need to be fired from a pistol. The extra Dust in the round would take up all the other room that was usually reserved for the powered Dust that was used for propellant, thus shortening the range of the bullet significantly. His high-powered rifle was good, but not good enough if the bullets never left the chamber in the first place. Even Sapphire's gun would be too long, despite its short frame. The conclusions that he came only to lead to a greatly disheartening finale for the young blonde twin, but it only increased Smoak's interest in it. So far he had assisted his twin brother in his experiments, and so he had been there for almost every breakthrough and failure. So when the conclusion came that the special bullets they came up with would need to be confined to a small handgun, his design in weapons took a specific course. Everything seemed centered around this mythical gun that could fire bullets set for any occasion.

"Yes, this!" said Smoak with certainty, "Look, we've been too focused on finding a pistol bullet that could be adapted to a rifle load, right?" said Smoak starting to pace back and forth.

"Yeah, with no such luck," said Shado.

"But I think that we were looking in the wrong place! We needed to be looking for a rifle bullet that could be adapted to a pistol load!"

"And you think that mom's bullets are the magical answer to this problem?"

"Think about it? Have you ever seen a round like these before?" said Smoak pulling one of the empties out of his pouch again and waving it under Shado's nose.

"No," said Shado flatly, "No one has, that's what makes them unique to her weapon. She made them herself!"

"Exactly!" said Smoak, "So that's what makes them perfect, no one has ever tested the capacity for them!"

"It's a bullet," said Shado, "That's pretty much the extent of it…"

"No, look!" pleaded Smoak, "Look at this thing!" he said reaching into his pouch one more time to pull out the unspent round.

Shado sighed, "What about it?"

"Look! This thing is small, like a pistol bullet," he said holding up the shell.

"Uh-huh."

"But the tip of it is shaped like a rifle bullet, and it's even slightly longer too, just like a rifle!" said Smoak calling attention to the tip of the bullet.

"Uh-huh?" said Shado, "Look, just get to the point."

"I'm getting there!" said Smoak, "I think this is what we've been looking for!"

"How do you know that?" said Shado, "You've never tested that theory, and even if you wanted to, you wouldn't be able to fire it until you somehow make this imaginary gun that holds it!"

"But you have to admit, there's a chance!" said Smoak

Shado heaved another sigh and held his head in his hand. He looked up at his twin brother who stood there still holding the cartridge in his hand, a big smile on his face, "Yes, there's a chance, but we can't prove it yet."

"Yes!" shouted Smoak

"But it's a slim chance! Not only do we need to show that the bullet can hold all the dust, but we also need to create this fabled gun that can then fire them! There is so much that needs to be done before we can prove this!" yelled Shado over Smoak's celebration.

* * *

"Boys?" said a voice behind them.

The twins swiveled around to face the door; Brick had entered the room while they were shouting and stood there with a serious look on his face, "Do you mind if I come in?"

Smoak's face fell, and he turned away to look away from his father, "You're kinda already in here," he said sternly.

"Look, I'm not here to lecture you."

"Then why are you here!?" shouted Smoak, turning on his dad.

"I'm gonna…" said Shado, making for the door. But Brick held up his arm to stop his other son.

"This involves both of you Shado, so I'd appreciate if you stick around," said Brick calmly.

Shado stopped, and his face was a mixture of confusion and intrigue. But he followed his father's instructions and stood near his brother. Brick had taken off his heavy weapon and even removed his long duster. Without his outerwear, it became very apparent how thin and gangly Brick was. He had to stoop slightly to fit under one of the trusses. His hands moved around in a sensitive manner, unsure of what to do, or where to rest. The Twins knew he was figuring what to say, because his mouth was opening and closing very quickly, without any sounds coming out of it. Finally, Brick took a deep breath and opened his mouth.

"What are you guys doing wasting your time here?"

Smoak and Shado looked taken aback. Smoak answered for the both of them, "You mean standing here?" he said looking down at his feet.

"No, no!" said Brick waving his hands in dismissal, "I mean, you guys are planning on becoming Huntsman right?"

"Yes…?" the twins said in unison, hesitantly

"Well you can't do that standing here can you?" said Brick

"If you're asking us if we cannot become Huntsman by just standing here in our room, then yes, you are correct," said Shado, "Something like that requires training at a recognized academy."

"No that's not what I meant…" said Brick. The redhead took another deep breath and tried again, "What is keeping you guys from going to the Academy right now?"

Smoak and Shado looked at each other for a second in thought and then turned back to their dad,

"Well…" stammered Smoak.

"I don't…" hemmed Shado.

"I don't have a weapon?" said Smoak finally.

"Money?" said Shado.

"Look, if those things were keeping you here, you'd be working on a way to solve those problems," said Brick, "So what's keeping you here? You guys could leave at any time, but you decide to waste your time here. And besides, I think that's why there are two of you!"

"Come again?" asked Smoak

"He has a weapon," said Brick pointing to Shado, "And you have the money!"

"Money?" said Smoak nervously, "I have no idea what you're talking about!"

"Cut the act, I know you still have the money you scammed today and an even larger stash of lien inside your bed," said Brick sternly.

"How did you…?" said Smoak

"Shado, that's how," said Brick

"You ratted me out?" said Smoak turning on his twin brother.

"Ratted is such a strong word," said Shado, getting defensive, "Let's just say I willingly informed mom and dad of your mysterious doings?"

"How did you even know, though? I thought that my money was a secret, even to you!"

"Yeah, just like how I know exactly how you managed to keep every cent you scammed today despite the fact that you 'returned' it all earlier?" said Shado.

"You pretend to put it back into their pocket, and then retake it in the same move, making them think that they have it when you never gave it back to them in the first place! Your pockets are full of lien that you swore you gave back right now!" the blonde twin said with his voice rising.

"Guys…" said Brick, trying to calm down his sons.

"Oh yeah? And so what?" said Smoak, "Like you don't think money is already tight around here? That and you wish we had more or that we could afford to travel to the Academy, _any_ Academy. Let's face it, we don't have the means to get into even the Academy in Vacuo! What makes you think that there won't be some cost behind it?"

"So what? You're going to buy your way to being a Huntsman?" said Shado.

"Isn't that how the way the world works? Huh?! Move some money the right way, grease a few palms, you can get anything done! Money is what makes the world move, it just matters who has it and what they choose to do with it," said Smoak with a bit of venom in his voice, "I'm just making sure I'm the guy with the money."

"Is that what you think being a Huntsman is?" said Shado, "Buying your way to the top, or not at all?"

"Oh please!" said Smoak, "You tell me that your little girlfriend hasn't done the same thing before!"

"This is not about Lilac and you know it!" yelled Shado.

"Oh yeah, and not only has she done it but how many times, huh?! To save your sorry butt!"

"Because it was your sorry ass that got me there in the first place!"

"Well, no one asked you to tag along!"

"And where would you be right now if I didn't, eh? Either looking through some iron bars or six feet under, that's where!"

"Guys…" muttered Brick.

"Oh, what happened to 'letting go of all this aggression'?!" shouted Smoak.

"Oh, you want to see aggression? You want to see aggression!? Let's go!" shouted Shado, getting ready to fight.

"Boys!" roared Brick. Smoak realized that now they did it. They crossed the line they weren't supposed to.

A lot of the reason Smoak often got off the hook for things he did was because no one wanted to see dad angry. While he was angry, he often lost control of his semblance and ended up flicking bits of acid spit everywhere in his anger. And then Sapphire would have to be the one to clean up any mess that ensued, both emotionally, and physically. Acid burns were not easy to treat, but she had lots of practice in the many years she and Brick had been married. And for that reason, Brick had been trying to put a hold on his temper. Before he and Sapphire were married, he had such a fiery temper. But after they started having kids, a temper was the last thing he needed.

"Look!" roared Brick and the spit began to fly. Most of it were aimed at Smoak, so he immediately thought about going intangible, and the acid wisped right through the blonde twin with no ill effects. The floor behind him, however, started to smolder slightly when it was it by Brick's spit. The two twins then fought over who would control being intangible to avoid being burned by the acid.

"I came up here to talk to about one thing and one thing only!" shouted Brick, "And it wasn't about money, it's not about who tattled to who about what! And it's certainly not your questionable taste in women!"

"Which one has the terrible taste, Smoak or me?" said Shado interrupting his dad.

"Yes! Both of you!" Shado's face fell, as did Smoak's.

Both of them had dated the female members of Team CORL for a while now. And it was only after Smoak gave Olive a promise ring, which the other blonde twin decided he wouldn't be outdone by the first. So Shado conned Smoak into making another wooden ring give to Lilac, who he had been dating for about as long as Smoak had been dating Olive.

"I kinda havfta agree with your mom on this!" shouted Brick.

* * *

"You kinda have to agree with me on what, honey?" said Sapphire as she came up the stairs to the attic room.

"Sapphire!" gasped Brick, "Hey, um-"

"We could hear you downstairs, and I knew if you were shouting that things weren't going well," said Sapphire and Brick stopped crying immediately, "Is anyone hurt?"

"Nope, we're good!" said Smoak, and he drug his heel across the floor to put a few smoldering spots in the wood of the floor.

"I thought I sent you up here because you were the calmest out of the two of us!" hissed Sapphire to her husband.

"I'm sorry! These two blockheads started shouting, and I couldn't help it, I lost my temper!" hissed Brick back.

"I know, we could hear them too," said Sapphire bluntly.

Sapphire turned on her sons, and they both gulped. Smoak knew exactly what was coming next and started to open his mouth, "Look, mom, I already know what you're going to-"

Sapphire cut off Smoak, "No, you don't."

"But- Isn't this about- ?" stammered Smoak.

"No, it isn't," the blonde mother said holding up a hand to silence her son, "I sent your dad up here to tell you guys one thing, but apparently that was the wrong choice. I thought he could tactfully pitch the idea to you guys so you'd think it was your own, but I see that was the wrong idea," she said with a glare towards her significant other. Brick cringed and stood to wring his hands in the corner.

"What are you guys going on about?" asked Shado.

Sapphire took a deep breath and her eyes softened, "Now, you know that your dad and I love you guys, right?"

"Of course!" said Shado

"Most days…" mumbled Smoak.

"We love you all the time!" said Sapphire sternly, "It's just sometimes you guys do some stuff that we aren't too happy about, but that doesn't mean we still don't love you. Isn't that right honey?"

"Um- yes! Absolutely!" stammered Brick.

"So you'll trust us when we ask you to do this, that it's for everyone's best interest?" said Sapphire, looking back towards her sons.

"What is it?" asked Smoak skeptically, "You're not asking us to clean out the shop for punishment are you?"

"No, nothing like that!" said Sapphire in an overly cheerful voice, "We're just asking you to move out…"

"Oh well if you put it like…wait…what?!" screeched Smoak.

"I concur, what?!" said Shado.

"Look, guys," interrupted their mom, "We've been talking about this for a while now, and we think you're ready to move out on your own," said Sapphire consolingly.

"Move out on our own?! Mom! We're seventeen!" shouted Smoak

"Which is perfect!" said Sapphire in her overly cheery voice

"It'll give you time to grow before applying to the Academy, it'll give you time away from home, a chance to finally get a weapon," said the Cardiff matron with a sideways glance at Smoak, "See the world, and not get arrested tonight!"

"Wait, what was that last part?" asked Shado.

"Yeah, what is this about being arrested?" asked Smoak

Sapphire sighed, "Well you see, Cole and his Team went back to that town you guys were at today. And apparently Roy overheard that they're putting together a little team to come and arrest you guys...and turn you over to the Kingdom Police," she said awkwardly,

"They found out that none of them had the money that they thought they did, and now they're coming here to deal with that." Smoak started to drag his toe around the floor in a small circle and look down in shame after that.

"And I have a feeling that they'll be here any minute," said Brick from the corner.

"What?!" shouted Smoak, and he started to panic and rush around the room, shoving things into a small knapsack.

"Whoa, whoa! Calm down there sport!" said Brick, "I said they'd be here any minute, but you still have some time, besides, we need to tell you some things before you go traipsing off with no clue of where you're going."

"Going? I know where I'm going!" said Smoak, "Anywhere _but_ here!"

"Well great, but what about after that?" questioned Sapphire.

"What do you mean by that?" asked Shado.

"You guys need a plan! You need to decide now where you're going, what you're doing, and how you're going to get there," said Sapphire.

"Well what would you have us do?" asked Shado.

"Uh-uh…this needs to be your plan, one that you've talked about and agreed on," said Sapphire, "We won't be there to help you if the plan heads south, so you need to make sure you think this through because it will just be you two."

Shado turned towards Smoak, and the two twins looked at each other for a tense minute, "Um-," stuttered Smoak.

Shado seemed to be thinking and saying words to himself, but finally, he said, "If the plan heads south!"

"What?" asked everyone else in the room

"If the plan heads south!" reiterated the blonde twin, "We'll head south! To Uncle Tim's house!"

"My brother, Timur?" spoke up Brick from the corner, "Why would you want to see him?"

"Wait," said Smoak, "I think you're on to something there!"

"Would someone care to enlighten us here!?" said Brick, "Why are you going to see Tim?"

"He's a weapons smith, and he has a forge! He has the tools and the know-how in order to help me to make my gun!" said Smoak.

"Great, but what happens when the angry mob catches up with you guys?" asked Sapphire, "You have to plan for something like that."

Smoak looked at Shado, and the two shared a nervous look, "Well, we'll have to lay low, and as soon as we're done, we'll have to leave Vacuo."

"Where will you guys go from there?" asked Sapphire, a lump forming in her throat.

"Probably off to one of the academies," said the twins in unison.

"You think you guys can get in?" asked Brick.

"Well it can't be too hard, I mean, you got into one of them didn't you?"

"Hey now!" chuckled Brick.

"Which one?" said Sapphire, trying to fight back tears

"Well, I don't want to go to Atlas," said Smoak and Shado agreed. Brick and Sapphire had to hold back hurt cries. Atlas Academy was their alma mater, and it stung a little to hear their sons say they didn't want to go there.

"And Beacon has a ridiculous waiting list and entrance requirements," said Shado, "So that's out of the question."

"And while Signal or Sanctum might be nice," said Smoak, "I think they're too…low-key…for what we want." Brick chuckled at his son's boldness.

"Besides, if we were to go to Signal or Sanctum, we would have to go to another school to finish training," said Shado, "And I'd prefer not to have to do that."

"Cut out the middleman, huh?" said Brick, who was starting to choke on a lump in his throat too.

"Exactly, I think we're ready and old enough to apply to a real school, like Haven!" said Smoak and Shado agreed wholeheartedly.

"Haven, huh?" said Sapphire softly, "Sounds like you two have a plan…"

"Yeah!" said the twins excitedly.

There was a loud bang at the door followed by several random gunshots and hollers. The whole house shook a little, and everyone spun around to look out the window. Brick motioned to freeze, and they all stopped to listen. There was another bang at the door, and Brick inched his way forward to look out at the front yard. Gathered in the yard was a group of about fifteen or so people. Brick nearly swore and turned to leave the attic room.

"I'll see if I can't stall them long enough for you guys to get away," he said as he descended the stairs, "Kill that light!" Smoak quickly reached up and pulled the chain for the single light in the attic.

"Smoak Cardiff!" said a loud voice, and the color in Smoak's face drained. He recognized the voice of the large lizard man from earlier, "Come on out little magician!" he threatened.

"Guys!" hissed Sapphire, "Get moving! But quietly!" she warned.

"Right!" said the twins quietly and they set out to work.

"Gentleman! Gentleman!" said Brick as he exited the front door and closed it behind him. The twins could hear him even all the way up in the attic, "What seems to be the problem?"

"Problem?!" shouted the lizard man, "Problem!? The problem is that we appear to have misplaced our money earlier today!" Several other members of the mob grumbled and shouted in response.

"Well I'm sorry that you can't keep up with the holes in your pockets," said Brick, rather cheekily, "But I fail to see why you have to come banging my door down about it."

The lizard man growled, "I think you know why we're here!" he shouted, "Turn over Smoak Cardiff to us, and his brother, and we'll take our leave," he wound up and spat at Brick's feet.

Brick dropped his gaze to the spittle on the dirt and raised an eyebrow, "Do you happen to know who I am?" he said, winding up to hawk a boogie. He held it in, though and waited for what might happen next.

"No, and I don't care!" shouted the Faunus, "Just hand over Smoak or we'll burn this house down!" Wrong move.

Brick spat at the ground in the middle of the mob and everyone drew back as they heard it sizzle in the dirt. The wad bubbled and oozed over the dirt and ate a hole in the ground until the acid lost its potency. The spot had grown to well over the size of a golf ball by the time the acid stopped working. The spot still continued to smoke slightly, and everyone looked back at Brick with fear.

"I don't think you want to be threatening my house, or my sons," said Brick in a quiet tone.

Meanwhile, back in the attic, Smoak and Shado were flying around their room, frantically trying to pack what they could into small knapsacks. The two muttered to themselves as they did so, attempting to work out whether they needed what they had or not. Sapphire stood in the window, watching the yard make sure nothing bad happened. No one heard when Sunni entered the attic, but they did notice when the light increased in the room. Sapphire turned and looked at her daughter, and Smoak and Shado stopped packing for a second.

"Mom…" whined Sunni, "I'm scared…"

"Oh honey…" said Sapphire and she rushed to hold Sunni, "It's okay sweetie, it'll be over soon, we just need you not to be so bright right now, all right?"

Sunni nodded and lowered her light to a dull glimmer. Then she buried herself in her mother's arms but then looked up and saw her brothers packing. She gasped, "Are you leaving?" Sapphire quieted Sunni so they wouldn't be heard.

"Where are you guys going? Can I come?" said Sunni enthusiastically.

"Um, "stammered Shado.

Sapphire intervened, "Honey, Smoak, and Shado are going away for a while."

"Yeah, um- "stuttered Smoak, "I'm going to make myself a weapon with Uncle Tim!"

"Ooh! Can I see when it's done?" asked Sunni. Even though she was twelve, Smoak still swore she acted like she was five, and often it was just to annoy Smoak, and make her seem innocent to everyone else. Smoak walked up to Sunni and bent down on one knee to be about the same height. He placed his hands firmly on his sister's shoulders and then looked into her eyes. That was something Smoak wished he hadn't done. Sunni's large eyes looked back so innocently at him that he felt so sorry for what they were doing.

"Well Sunni, after I'm done making a weapon with Uncle Tim, we're going to go to Haven to go study to become Huntsman!" said Smoak.

"Well, when are you going to come home?" asked the blonde girl.

Smoak froze, "Well," he said, and then he gulped, "We're probably not coming back for a long time,"

"How much time?" asked Sunni

Smoak thought for a moment as he gazed out the window, and then he got an idea, "Sunni, you know what the stories say about how long the moon has looked that way?" said Smoak pointing to the broken fragments of Remnant's moon.

"Forever and ever!" said Sunni cheerily

"Well think about Shado and me as the moon, and we will be gone- "

"Forever and ever?" asked Sunni, sticking out her bottom lip in a pout.

"Yeah…" sighed Smoak, "Forever and ever."

"But why?" whined Sunni and Sapphire had to hush her again, "Is it because of the bad men outside?" she muttered. Smoak had to hand it to her, even though she acted five, she still had the understanding to match her age.

"Yes, the evil men outside want to make sure we don't become Huntsman, so we're going to leave before they can do that," said Shado appearing over Smoak's shoulder. Shado was packed and ready to go and had even changed back into his leather ensemble. He had pulled up the hood on his outfit but kept the mask down to talk freely.

"And if we don't hurry, the evil men will catch us, so we need to go…" urged Shado. Smoak understood and stood up and resumed preparations to leave.

"You boys need to think about food and other things for the trip, it's, at least, three days from here to Ironcoast," warned Sapphire.

"Right, do you mind if we-?" said Shado, gesturing to downstairs.

"Not at all, in fact if you take food now, I won't have to throw some things out, and it will make it easier the next time I have to go shopping," said Sapphire.

"What do you mean?" asked Shado

"It means I won't have to get as much food to feed two growing boys…" said Sapphire with a smirk.

Shado chuckled slightly and then walked towards the stairs. Before he exited the attic room, he deposited his bag and katanas at the top of the stairs and then slowly faded from view as the blonde twin went invisible. The stairs seemed to magically open and close as Shado invisibly worked his way through the house, unseen. Smoak was almost done with the packing, and Sapphire had sat down on the floor and laid Sunni's head on her legs. She was stroking Sunni's blonde hair and humming a lullaby to keep her calm. Smoak had heard the song before; it was the same one that their mom had sung to him when he was growing up. Sapphire quietly sang the words as she watched Brick continue to argue with the men outside.

"… _surprised when they find out that a warrior will soon run wild…_ "

Smoak took a second to think back about the words of the song. Growing up it just seemed like a child's song telling them of all the things they could do when they grew up, but today the words seemed to have new meaning. To Smoak, today was that day when he was no longer a child, but an adult. And he could tell that they did to his mom as well. A small tear ran down her face, and her voice started to crack as she held back tears.

"… _the dream that you've always dreamed is suddenly about to flower…_ "

Sapphire looked up at Smoak, and the blonde twin fought hard to keep back tears of his own. While he knew that his parents didn't have to do this for him and Shado, he was immensely grateful that they were. Because he was sure that they had every reason to turn him over to the men outside after all the things he had put them through. But they were still his parents, and they were doing their best to look out for him and his brother. In short, they were ensuring that they would have a better future than spending the next years locked up or six feet under. He just wished that they could have left in less of a rushed situation. There was so much he wanted to say, but he felt like it would ruin the moment if he were to speak. Sapphire looked away from Smoak, and the two very quietly wiped the tears out of their eyes. Even though neither one of them said anything, they both seemed to know what the other wanted to say.

The stairs to the attic opened once again and closed very quietly again. There were light footfalls, and then Shado reappeared once again, his arms laden with food. He also had Smoak's boots. Smoak gasped and then nodded. He hadn't thought about his boots but he was glad that Shado had his back. He slipped on the knee-high footwear and then did up the buckles to secure them. Very quietly, the twins started to divvy up the supplies to fit in the spaces in their packs. It wasn't much, but Smoak was sure it would be enough to last them at least until they reached Ironcoast. After everything was carefully packed away, the two brothers picked up their knapsacks and strapped them on. The two gave one final look around their shared room and then looked at each other. Both of them had a stern look that verged on remorsefulness. Sapphire finished singing her song.

"… _In time, your heart will open minds, the story will be told, and victory is in a simple soul._ "

"Bye, mom," said Shado.

"Yeah, bye mom, say goodbye to dad for us."

"Bye, boys," said Sapphire tearfully, "You better be careful."

"We will," said Smoak with a whimper.

"We'll make sure once you're gone to call ahead to Uncle Tim to make sure he knows you're coming," said Sapphire, "We don't want to surprise him," she said with a weak chuckle.

Smoak and Shado laughed weakly as well and then cleared their eyes once more. The twins then walked towards the other side of the room near the back window. They knew that they couldn't leave through the front door because there was an angry mob out there waiting for them, so they had to find an alternative way to leave. But for a pair of boys who could go through walls, that wasn't a problem. Smoak unstrapped his backpack and then handed it to Shado. This was a routine that they had practiced often. Smoak backed a few feet up and prepared to go on a run.

"But I don't want you to leave!" cried Sunni jumping up and running to grab Smoak.

Smoak heaved another sigh and then turned to look at the young blonde girl. He had never had to do something like this before. He always came back, regardless for how long he was gone, so long goodbyes were something he didn't have to do. Because everyone knew that even though Smoak may have disappeared in the middle of the night, he would always find his way back home after some time. So no one was too terribly worried or bent out of shape when it happened. But now there was a high likelihood that he and Shado would never come home again, and everyone seemed to know it. Smoak didn't know what to do, but then an idea hit him. He reached into his pocket and then drew out a deck of cards. He opened the box and dumped out the cards into his other hand.

"Sunni?" said Smoak with a calm voice, "Tell me, how many cards are in a deck of cards?"

"Fifty-two?" said Sunni hesitantly.

"Exactly," said Smoak putting his hand under her chin, "And how many weeks in a year?"

"I don't know? A lot…" said Sunni.

"There are exactly fifty-two weeks in a year, just like this deck," said Smoak pointing to the cards in his hand.

"There are?"

"Yeah, and so you can use this just like a little calendar. You just write the first day of the week on one edge of the card," said Smoak drawing his finger across the top edge of one the cards, "And then each new week you write the next date and so on until you've used the whole deck."

"Okay! And when I'm all done then you guys should be home, right?"

Smoak gulped, "Well maybe, but if we aren't then you can turn the cards over and write on the other edge for another time."

"And then?"

"Well, if we aren't then you can continue to turn the cards and write on them until we are."

"How many times will I have to do this until you guys come home?"

"I don't know…" said Smoak, "But why don't we make a bet on it. I say that you will only have to write say…three times."

"Three times?! But that's three years!" said Sunni with a pout.

"Yes, and you think it will be different?" asked Smoak.

"Hmm…I say four…" said Sunni with a grin.

"Four!?" said Smoak, "That's even longer!"

"I know, but there are only four edges to the card, and I'll need to see you so I can get a new deck of cards so that we can do it again," said Sunni with a smile.

"And what will you do if you don't see me in four years for another deck of cards?" asked Smoak.

Sunni struggled with that thought for a second and then said very innocently, "I guess I'll have to start writing on the back! But that only gives me four more years! I better see you before then!"

"I promise you," said Smoak through a lump in his throat, "You'll see me before then…"

"I better!" said Sunni with a frown.

Smoak brought Sunni into a tight hug, and the two stayed that way for several moments before breaking apart. Sunni took a few steps back, clutching her new deck of cards. Smoak then turned and walked back to Shado. The two brothers nodded at each other and then launched into their ritual. This was something that they had done often enough that it had just become routine. Smoak backed a few steps away from the window and then started to psych himself up. He pumped his arms and accelerated his breathing. He then ran full force at the window. Before he went crashing through, Smoak went intangible and sailed through the transparent pane without issue, and then returned to normal once he was outside. The window rattled slightly as the blonde twin went through, but otherwise, both the glass and Smoak were fine. Once outside, Smoak flailed his arms and legs to balance himself, and then he braced himself for landing and tucked and rolled once his feet hit the ground.

"What was that?!" said a nearby voice. Smoak immediately went invisible.

Smoak waited to see if someone was going to come looking or something was going to happen. But things quieted, and Smoak lets out a sigh. Looking up towards the window, he saw Shado looking around the yard for him in the darkness. Smoak went visibly again and waved to his brother from near the fence. Shado saw him and nodded and then went into the next phase. Taking Smoak's backpack, he heaved and threw it at the window too. Before the pack hit, it too sailed through with the assistance of their semblance. Shado started the load through, and once it was, Smoak took over and made sure the kit was physical again for him to catch it in time. Smoak set down his bag just in time to find the other pack as Shado tossed it through the window. Once the bags were secure, Smoak signaled one last time, and Shado nodded back. Shado backed up and then ran towards the glass as well. And just like Smoak, the other blonde twin was able to go through the glass and land carefully just outside the boundary fence.

"Ready?" whispered Smoak as he handed Shado, his pack.

"Yeah, let me just get one last look at the place," whispered Shado back.

Shado looked back at the house and saw Sapphire silhouetted in the window by Sunni's warm glow. Sapphire and their sister were waving to the twins, and they waved back. Smoak fought hard to avoid crying, and he sniffled a few times. Shado looked at him and lightly punched his brother in the arm.

"You're not crying are you?" asked Shado, choking back tears of his own.

"No…," said Smoak, "I just have some dust in my eye," he said very unconvincingly.

"Are you ready?" asked Shado, shouldering his pack and turning towards the fence.

Shado nodded, and he shouldered his pack as well. The two brothers turned away from the house and then closed the distance of the last few feet to the fence. Smoak silently signaled to Shado to go first, and the hooded blonde slipped through the fence using his semblance. Once on the other side, he signaled to Smoak, and he followed close after. They ducked until they were out of sight of the house and the group gathered there. Smoak tried to fight the feeling that this would probably be the last time that he would ever see that house.


End file.
